Proportion of women who worked prior to and during their pregnancy and received maternity benefits, by characteristics, Canada, 2006/2007
Source: CICH graphic created using data adapted from the Public Health Agency of Canada. What Mothers Say: The Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey 2006-2007. Ottawa. 2009. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/rhs-ssg/pdf/tab-eng.pdf accessed June 15, 2017.
In 2006/07, 68.3% of women in Canada worked during their pregnancy and received maternity benefits.
That proportion was twice as high for women with a university degree compared with women who had less than high school. In fact, there is a clear gradient of women with increasing levels of formal education being increasingly likely to have worked and received maternity benefits.
Only 36.5% of teenage women 15 to 19 years of age worked and received benefits compared with 72.2% of 30 to 34 year olds.
Only 46.3% of women whose household income was at or below the LICO* worked and received maternity benefits compared with 75.6% of those women whose household income was above the LICO.
Women having their first baby were more likely to have worked and received benefits compared with women having subsequent babies.
*LICO (low income cut off) data based on postal code information.