There has been a growth in precarious work in Ontario in the past decade. This affects us all. Beyond the anxiety itself that comes with vulnerable work, many in the labour market do not have the same social and legal protections and security that other workers enjoy. This needs to change.

Precarious employment is now found in all sectors of our economy and in every occupation. According to recent reports by United Way Toronto with McMaster University and the Law Commission of Ontario, barely half of us have stable jobs with benefits and security. Perhaps most surprising, insecure jobs have crept into middle- and high-income — groups that were previously immune to this type of employment.

A shrinking manufacturing sector, advances in technology and fierce global competition have all contributed to a shifting jobs picture. These changes in the labour market are fairly well known, but the impact on our lives outside work is coming as a surprise to many.

Creeping job insecurity is taking a toll on our personal sense of well-being. It curtails family time, produces financial worries and causes many of us to delay significant life decisions. Research suggests the growth in precarious employment may be undermining our community by straining social networks, threatening charitable giving and limiting civic engagement.

So what should we do to reduce individuals’ insecurity in light of the realities of today’s labour market? A number of practical steps can be taken that would mitigate the negative impacts of precarious employment and reduce the vulnerability of workers.

We first must bring people together to understand the importance of the issue for the well-being of our community. It’s crucial for the private sector and labour, community organizations and governments to come together to identify common ground. Recently, United Way Toronto and McMaster University took a first step in this direction. The consensus that emerged from those consultations was that precarious employment and the insecurity that goes with it were having a real impact on the health of individuals and our community and that all of us must be part of creating solutions.

We must then develop a comprehensive policy response to this growth in precarious employment that is nonetheless sensitive to the economic realities we face. The policy response will need to be multi-faceted and, ultimately, will need to modernize our social benefits to account for changes in the labour market.

A full response would need to include federal changes to the Employment Insurance system to include more workers in the Greater Toronto Region under the EI umbrella. It would ensure that federal training funds are more widely available to precarious workers who are currently shut out of most federal training programs.

But the province will need to also play a big role, given its jurisdiction over employment standards, wages and many income security programs. The upcoming Ontario Budget is an opportunity to take practical steps to help precarious workers at little to no cost.

The provincial Employment Standards Act is the basic foundation of rules to ensure that fairness in the workplace is the right of all Ontarians. The province made a number of significant changes to the Act in 2009 in response to changes in the labour market. These were important in extending protections to the growing number of workers employed by temporary agencies. Further steps to modernize the Act are now necessary.

Ontario has also begun to move forward with a key plank in its Poverty Reduction Strategy by committing additional resources to enforce employment standards. The province now needs to move forward and act on the pledge through an additional $5.5 million into dedicated proactive inspections. This would go a long way toward ensuring every worker is treated fairly.

Ontario has an opportunity to modernize its legislation to improve protection for vulnerable workers. In conjunction with social assistance reform, this could be an important step forward in ensuring that employment is truly a pathway to income security. This is a goal that all parties in the Ontario Legislature should support. And it would be an important momentum-builder for an agenda that every sector of our society has to take part in.

Susan McIsaac is President & CEO of United Way Toronto. Matthew Mendelsohn is the founding director of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto.