About 1.5 million workers in Ontario do not have drug coverage, a new report shows, with visible minorities, young people, and recent immigrants in part-time employment significantly more likely to be excluded compared to their white counterparts.

The study by the Toronto-based Wellesley Institute delves into the province’s drug coverage gaps in the context of Ontario’s “historic shift towards part-time work,” but also notes that one in five of all working Ontarians do not have medication coverage.

While part-time workers were less likely to have prescription medication coverage than full-time employees — 78 per cent of full-timers reported access compared to 68 per cent of part-timers — the study also found significant gaps between part-timers themselves.

Some 45 per cent of immigrant part-time workers lacked drug coverage, compared to a quarter of their non-immigrant counterparts. Meanwhile, 41 per cent of part-time visible minorities lacked coverage. That figure was 26 per cent for white part-timers.

“We’re seeing that employers aren’t providing benefits, and government programs are not filling in those gaps,” said Rebecca Cheff, one of the project’s lead researchers. “And ultimately we just have concerning gaps for workers.”

The study being released Thursday found a smaller coverage gap persisted for visible minorities in full-time work: 28 per cent lacked medication coverage compared to 18 per cent of white full-time employees.

Four in 10 young part-time workers also reported that they had no medication coverage, compared to 19 per cent of part-timers over 65. Overall, the findings showed that medication coverage improves with age.

“These gaps in coverage are worrisome, since prescription drugs play an essential role in preventing and treating disease and in helping us stay healthy,” the report says.

The report did not find a significant difference in coverage rates between men and women. But because more women are in part-time work than men, the absolute number of part-time female workers without coverage was almost twice that of men.

“Without coverage it’s more of a challenge to afford medication when you needed it. Other research has shown us that means that people sometimes have to go without or skip medication on top of that, other research has shown that part-time workers make lower wages,” Cheff said.

The differences in pay and benefits, the study says, can be explained in part by “deeply ingrained negative social attitudes” that have “devalued part-time work, which is disproportionately done by women, younger workers, and seniors.”

Toronto mother of two Kanti Saha is a part-time worker in the retail sector, a job she says has resulted in severe back and foot pain. But because she doesn’t have benefits, she says she’s been unable to afford the prescribed therapy and medication.

“I just neglect myself. I just give priority to the children,” she said.

She said things were easier when the province introduced two paid sick days for all workers, which allowed her to go to appointments without losing a day’s pay. But those changes were reversed last year by the Ford government.

According to calculations made by Ontario’s Ministry of Finance for the Changing Workplaces Review of provincial labour standards, part-time work’s share of total employment rose from 13.5 per cent to nearly 20 per cent between 1976 and 2015. Most of the growth happened between the late 1970s and early 1990s.

“But we don’t see the way that we provide medication coverage adapting and changing with those realities,” Cheff said.

The Changing Workplaces Review also noted that some of this part-time work is involuntary: almost 6 per cent said they would prefer full-time hours, while 5 per cent held multiple jobs.

“Part-time workers are often low-wage earners and are highly concentrated in the retail trades, accommodation and food services industries, which have a high concentration of vulnerable workers in precarious work,” the 2017 review said.

“While part-time work is desirable for many employees, a significant portion of part-time work is low wage, without benefits, and has scheduling uncertainty which creates stress.”

“Sometimes I feel discrimination in the workplace,” said Saha. “I prepare to go to work and suddenly I get a get that (I) don’t need to come. It reduces my income and it’s kind of a stress for me.”

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Ontario’s previous Liberal government passed legislation mandating that part-time, temporary, and casual employees could not be paid less for doing the same work as full-time employees. The Ford government eliminated the measure last year.

“I think everyone has a role because decent work is such a key part of building healthy communities,” said Cheff.

“We do highlight the importance of pharmacare from government — and are also looking to employers to provide equal pay for equal work, equal benefits for equal work.”