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In this article, we examine whether (and by how much) workers in Canada have been compensated for the 'novel' risks associated with COVID‐19. We create a unique dataset from a system that scores occupations in the US O*NET database for COVID‐19 exposure. We then combine those COVID exposure scores with Canadian occupational data contained in the Public Use Microdata File of the Labour Force Survey. This allows us to categorize Canadian occupations based on COVID‐19 exposure risk. We find a long‐tailed distribution of COVID‐19 risk scores across occupations, with most jobs at the lower end of the risk spectrum and relatively few occupations accounting for most of the high COVID‐19 exposure risk. We find that workers who are already more vulnerable in the labour market (i.e. youth, women and immigrants) are also more likely to be employed in occupations with high COVID‐19 exposure risk. When we look at the relationship between high‐COVID exposure risks in occupation and wages, we find negative compensating differentials both at the mean (negative 8%) and across the earnings distribution. However, when workers are covered by a union, they enjoy a sizeable hazard pay premium (11.7% on average) as compared to their non‐union counterparts. Furthermore, we find that the moderating effects of unionization for workers at high risk of COVID exposure to be largest at the bottom of the earnings distribution (i.e. the 10th percentile of unionized earners receives a 12.3% risk premium for high‐COVID exposure, whereas the 90th percentile receives only a 2%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About one-fifth of Canadian employees are in jobs that are vulnerable to service offshoring. Despite this figure, both theory and our empirical evidence (based on a variety of methodologies and datasets) suggest that the offshoring of business services is not likely to lead to large adverse employment effects. We also conclude that existing active labour market adjustment policies (e.g. increased labour market information, job search, mobility and training) developed for other adjustment pressures such as technological change and free-trade in goods are just as appropriate (perhaps even more so) to deal with the consequences of service offshoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]