Ontario’s higher minimum wage is long overdue. Now go for a ‘living wage’

Posted on November 3, 2021 in Debates

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TheStar.com  – Opinion/Editorial
Nov. 2, 2021.   By Star Editorial Board

More than 750,00 Ontarians are meant to be in a celebratory mood now that Premier Doug Ford has announced an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

What’s that, you say? You don’t hear cheering in the streets?

A more muted response to the legislation, set to be introduced on Thursday, is appropriate. Yes, we have repeatedly criticized the premier for putting the brakes on his predecessor’s phased-in wage increase, which would have delivered $15 an hour nearly three years ago. And certainly, a 65-cent-an-hour rise, which takes effect on Jan. 1, is a notable improvement from last month’s teeny tiny bump of a dime an hour.

But we’ll leave that champagne cork in the bottle as we ponder all the time lost, and peruse the latest numbers from the Ontario Living Wage Network. Surely the Ford government knew that this is Living Wage Week?

The new data puts the living wage in Peel Region at $19.80 an hour. Hamilton: $17.20. Guelph: $18.10. Toronto: $22.08.

In no Ontario community does $15 an hour provide a living wage.

By living wage we mean the sum required for shelter, food, childcare, transportation and other necessities. To determine the living wage rates, the network crunches and averages costs for a single adult, a single parent and a family of four.

Seems a logical guideline if the government wants to make Ontario the best place to live, work and raise a family, which it says it does.

And it presents an obvious opening for Unifor President Jerry Dias, who appeared alongside Ford on Tuesday, to both commend the premier – he deemed the increase a good start – and to issue a call to action. “We have to get to a living wage,” said Dias. “Do I think $15 is wonderful? The answer is no.”

If anything, Ford’s announcement places a focus on other not-wonderful elements of how his government is, or really isn’t, working for workers. High on the list of negatives was his fast elimination of two employer-paid sick days, again an initiative brought in by his Liberal predecessor. Two days was hardly generous, yet out the window they went.

COVID exposed that disastrous strategy. In slow response to the pandemic the government introduced three days of infectious disease emergency leave. That sick leave provision is due to expire at year’s end.

Should the government be introducing permanent sick days? The answer is an obvious yes.

Now Ford is using the pandemic and the higher cost of living as a handy framing device for his minimum wage increase. The poorly paid workers who stocked grocery store shelves, who kept factories humming – these are among the heroes of the moment, he says. This is very true. It’s also true that they’ve been underpaid heroes across the years of the Ford administration, long before anyone heard the word “coronavirus.”

It should be noted that those who will see the biggest wage bump are servers in licensed establishments who currently make $12.55 an hour. The logic behind the sector’s historic wage gap was that servers made up the difference in tips. That logic substantially vapourized during the pandemic.

Students under 18 who work 28 hours a week or less will see a 60-cent increase. Homeworkers will receive an increase of 70 cents.

All this will land as part of the government’s fall economic statement, giving Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy his working-for-workers moment to match Labour Minister Monte McNaughton’s recent initiatives, including protections for temporary workers that were stripped away by the Conservatives themselves.

It’s been quite the political conversion. Not that we’re complaining. It’s just unfortunate for the workers of this province that so much time has been lost.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2021/11/02/ontarios-higher-minimum-wage-is-long-overdue-now-go-for-a-living-wage.html

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