Fishermen’s wives get jobless benefits as unemployment insurance is granted to an estimated 10,000 women working with their husbands.

In 1980, the federal unemployment insurance (UI) program recognizes that many women work with their husbands in the fisheries, contributing to total family income, and they become eligible for UI payments out of season. This decision  reverses the 1957 rule which extended UI to self-employed fishermen, but denied benefits to their wives. It follows a March 1979 human rights complaint filed by Newfoundland and British Columbia women who fish.