[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: Report pegs decent living wage at $16

[Terrie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Rae <rae at blindcanadians.ca>
Date: Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 7:46 AM
Subject: Report pegs decent living wage at $16
To: aebc at blindcanadians.ca


Report pegs decent living wage at $16; Higher pay represents threshold
family must cross to take part in society, avoid being marginalized

Laurie Monsebraaten
The Toronto Star, Nov. 18, 2008

Forget dreams of a $10 minimum wage lifting thousands of workers out of
poverty. A couple raising two young children in the GTA would each need to
earn at least $16.60 an hour to have a decent quality of life, says a new
study to be released today. A single parent with one child would need to
earn $16.15 an hour.

Ontario's minimum wage is $8.25. It will rise to $10.25 in 2010.

Employers and government must look beyond minimum wages towards the concept
of a living wage that allows workers to raise healthy, happy children; enjoy
recreation, culture and entertainment; and participate fully in modern life,
says the study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

And living wages should be part of the broader effort to address poverty in
Ontario and Canada, including poverty among employed people, the report
adds.

"There's a big difference between having enough to survive and having enough
to participate in the life of the community" said economist Hugh Mackenzie
co- author of the report. "The living wage is the income threshold a family
has to cross to avoid being marginalized."

The living wage described in the report is still more than $5 an hour less
than the 2007 average of $21.70 an hour for the area, said John Cartwright,
president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.

"We're not talking luxury," he said yesterday. "We're talking about an
income that allows your kid to go to a movie or to the dentist before their
teeth rot. It's about being able to afford to buy your 80-year-old
grandmother a birthday present. Pretty basic stuff."

Toronto factory worker Joanne Ngo knows what it is like to live on both
sides of a living wage.

The 36-year-old single mom was able to buy a modest semi-detached home in
the city's north end and raise her 12-year-old daughter in relative comfort
on her $18.10-an-hour job at the Progressive Moulded Products auto parts
factory. But the Vaughan plant closed in July and after a dozen years on the
line, Ngo was out of work.

The financial squeeze - employment insurance covers just 55 per cent of her
former wage - means Ngo had to cancel her daughter's gymnastics and ballet
lessons. And she's worried she may have to sell her home in a falling
market.

"It's been very stressful. Rent is expensive too. And I worry about my
daughter's future," says Ngo.

So far, the only work she has been able to find are jobs paying between $8
and $10 an hour that provide no security or benefits.

About one million Ontario workers earn less than $10 an hour, says today's
report.

And despite Ontario's economic growth over the past decade, it is the only
province in Canada where the proportion of jobs paying less than $10 an hour
has increased, it adds.

Growth in low-paying, part-time and temporary work and the push for living
wages will be discussed at the Metro Convention Centre on Saturday as part
of a Good Jobs Summit staged by a coalition of labour, community, youth,
social justice and environmental groups.

Other issues on the agenda include job training, credentials and employment
equity.




-- 
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
"If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant." June Callwood
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and
renders the present inaccessible.  Maya Angelou
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