Une évaluation de l’effet du crédit d’impôt pour prolongation de carrière sur l’emploi et le taux d’activité des travailleurs de 60 ans et plus au Québec

Following in Sweden’s and Australia’s footsteps, the Government of Québec introduced a tax credit for experienced workers in 2012, encouraging older workers to remain in or return to the labour market. This program became the Tax Credit for Career Extension in 2019. Using the public microdata files of the Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey and the province of Ontario as a comparison group, the effect of this income tax credit on older workers’ labour force participation and employment rates was estimated by the difference-in-differences method. A probit analysis indicates that the tax credit had a positive and significant effect on the probability of employment or participation in most age and sex subgroups of workers aged 60 and over. From 2012 to 2019, the credit is estimated to have contributed to the retention or creation of an average of a little less than 27,000 jobs per year, at an average annual cost of $4,800 per job, which gives Québec an edge over countries with comparable policies. Thus, a program that targets age and income groups can significantly improve the performance of this fiscal instrument.