Key Small Business Statistics - July 2012

The evidence is strong that the self-employed work longer hours than employees; this has been the case since 1991. On average, the self-employed worked 39.5 hours per week in 2011 compared with 35.3 hours for employees. Even more striking is the large difference in those who usually worked over 50 hours per week in 2011—30.3 percent of self-employed persons worked over 50 hours compared with less than 4.1 percent of employees (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Percentage Distribution of Usual Weekly Hours Worked by Employees and the Self-Employed, 1991, 2001 and 2011

[Description of Figure 12]
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2012.

When it comes to working part-time (less than 30 hours per week), the self-employed differ from employees—23.0 percent of the self-employed and 18.4 percent of employees worked part-time in 2011. These differences between the self-employed and employees persisted over the 1991–2011 period, although there has been some abatement in the tendency of the self-employed to work over 50 hours per week since 2001. As well, there has been a small change in the proportion of those working part-time, both among the self-employed and among employees.

As shown in Figure 13, there are also major differences between men and women in usual weekly hours worked—men are more likely to work long hours, whereas women are more likely to work part-time. On average, self-employed men worked 43.1 hours per week in 2011 compared with 33.1 hours for self-employed women. Furthermore, 36.6 percent of self-employed men worked over 50 hours in 2011 compared with 19.1 percent of self-employed women. The same pattern applies among employees, although at much lower levels—6.5 percent of male employees worked over 50 hours in 2011 compared with 1.6 percent of female employees.

Figure 13: Percentage Distribution of Usual Weekly Hours Worked by Class of Worker and Gender, 2011

[Description of Figure 13]
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2012.

Females are more likely to work part-time, whether they are self-employed or are employees. Among the self-employed, 37.5 percent of women worked part-time (less than 30 hours) in 2011 compared with 15.0 percent of men. Among employees, 25.4 percent of women worked part-time in 2011 compared with 11.5 percent of men.