Does $20.64 "living wage" solve the poverty in BC?

[kurtzfan]

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-s-working-poor-low-wage-jobs-keep-many-living-paycheque-to-paycheque

 

Katrina Charlton sips tea from the couch of her modest White Rock rental duplex, home from her first job and thrilled that she isn’t scheduled to work her second job later in the evening.

“Today is exciting that I only have one job. How crazy is that?” the 52-year-old laughs. “But you’ve got to find the positives. I generally go 21 days without a day off, then take a day off.”

She has worked two jobs for the last 20 years, ever since becoming a single mother to her two children.

“I stress out about money all the time,” said Charlton.  “One cheque pays my ($1,100) rent, so half of my money is gone just like that, and the other cheque goes to pay the bills. … When my kids were younger it was very, very hard, so I always had to have more money coming in from somewhere.”

Charlton’s first job, as an education assistant at a local school district, pays well at $26 per hour, but she can only get 29 hours of work each week. At night and on weekends, she works as a server for less than minimum wage — with tips, she earns about $16 an hour.

“I’ve worked $15 an hour and I don’t think that’s livable. I would say $20 minimum for people to live a lifestyle where they are not stressed about everything,” she said. “I find when you are stressed like that you are running on the hamster wheel and all you are doing is working and surviving. You don’t have time to think about any of the other necessities in life, or how you can get out of the situation you are in.”

 

Anti-poverty advocates are calling on the provincial government to support sectors that will create full-time, good-paying jobs; pass laws to improve job security; and raise the minimum wage of $10.85 an hour to a so-called “living wage” (which in Metro Vancouver has been estimated at $20.64). 

 

The majority of jobs are full-time in B.C., which leads the country with a low unemployment rate and a record number of residents working. But an analysis of the federal labour force survey shows the share of part-time jobs has steadily grown here, from 15 per cent in 1976 to nearly a quarter of all jobs in 2016.

In fact, Statistics Canada data shows, of the 72,000 new jobs created in 2016, more than half were part-time.

When asked about the recent rise of part-time work, Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said B.C.’s job-creation plan is a “long-term strategy ” — and argued the vast majority of the 200,000 jobs created over the last six years are full-time.

“We recognize that there is always more that can be done,” Bond said, but added her government’s focus is to “grow the economy and create better, well-paying jobs for as many people as possible.” 

The government’s jobs plan, she added, has propelled the province to lead the country in employment growth. “We recognize that some people are struggling, but our plan is delivering results and we’re going to continue on with that plan so we build opportunities for British Columbians.” 

Bond said there is a declining number of people making minimum wage, and that half of them are students living with their parents. She also said the average wage being paid in B.C. right now is $25 an hour for adults.

NDP leader John Horgan claims that since the recent recession, most of the jobs created have been temporary, low-paying jobs and part-time jobs.

“In Metro Vancouver, which is driving the low overall numbers in terms of unemployment, that belies the issues that are happening in rural British Columbia, where resource communities are struggling because of the downturn in commodity prices, but also by the closure of forest operations,” Horgan said.

But even the reality in big cities is not so rosy.

“Metro Vancouver’s booming economy relies on a large group of low-paid workers to provide security, catering, cleaning, administration and other services,” says a 2016 working poverty report by Iglika Ivanova of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Ivanova’s report also found the majority of people in B.C. living in poverty are not on welfare — of the 14 per cent of British Columbians who live in poverty, just four per cent receive social assistance. Nearly one in 10 people living in Metro Vancouver is “working poor.”

The NDP has said it would boost the minimum wage to $15 if elected. The Liberals are raising it to $11.35 in September.

B.C. business groups say that being forced to suddenly pay much higher wages would harm small companies, lead to lost jobs and cuts in hours for employees. 

“For B.C. businesses that employ low-wage employees, moving quickly to a $15-per-hour minimum wage would amount to at least a 40-per-cent increase in labour costs, likely creating a shock to the labour market and causing many smaller firms to scale back their demand for entry-level workers in particular,” said Jock Finlayson, executive vice-president and chief policy officer at the Business Council of B.C. 

More than half of B.C. workers, though, say they live paycheque to paycheque, and feel overwhelmed by debt, a Canadian Payroll Association Survey found last September.

That is true of Charlton, who has not been able to save for her retirement. “I really worry what will happen to me if I can’t work my second job, because I have nothing to live off,” she said.

The modest White Rock duplex she rents is near where she works and close to her three young grandchildren, who she helps to look after. But the property is now for sale, leaving her worried about finding another affordable place in the area to rent.

“A lot of people my age have to go back to sharing like when they were kids,” she said. “I’ve had roommates to get me through the summer (when she doesn’t get paid for her education job) and it’s not ideal. But it would be a way to get by, if you had to.”

Charlton is not a complainer, and is grateful for the good things in her life. But she believes the government should put more priority on affordable rental housing and on increasing wages.

“I have a good life here, but I’ve worked very very very hard,” she added. “I think B.C. is a very tough place to make it.”

Job security is another concern. Jennifer Whiteside, business manager for the Hospital Employees Union, said employees such as care aides can be fired and replaced by lower-wage workers.

At one home on the Sunshine Coast, workers were earning $21.54 an hour when their contract was flipped in 2014. Today, those jobs have been contracted out for $17.50 an hour.

Sam Lindsay, 47, was one of the care aides at that home. She had been there for six years, working closely every day with seniors doing everything from helping them bathe to putting on their shoes to making sure they were wearing their glasses or their lipstick.

“You’re making a choice. In order to keep your job and work with these amazing people and care for people that you love so much, you’re going to roll my income back,” Lindsay said. “We were heartbroken.”

Low wages and precarious jobs are a serious problem, said Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Data from the Canadian Labour Congress shows the majority of workers who earn less than $15 an hour work full-time and are mostly between the ages of 25 and 54.

“There are many, many people working for less than $15 an hour — single moms, single dads working more than one job trying to support a family,” Lanzinger said. “It is not just kids living in their parents’ basements.”

 

[Nuxfanabroad]

The elephant in the room, everyone likes to pretend is beneath them: working class poverty.

 

This will never be solved. Simply not enough to go 'round.

[Vinny in Vancouver]

They're trying the living wage thing in Seattle, and right now, prices of food in the restaurants there have really gone up. It feels more like a whack-a-mole than a real solution...

 

[CowBoyCoyote]

renters will be available to pay even more rent when the land lord jacks up the price,  like moving on a merry go round

[brilac]

This is happening in Seattle, and the rent and restaurant prices have gone up. I don't agree with the minimum wage going up, and it is expected to go up more next year. For renting an apartment in Seattle, most buildings require a tenant to make 3x the amount of rent. I knew this would happen with everything going up when the minimum wage increased, and voted no on this, and many voted yes. I wonder how many took into account that things like rent, food, parking, dining out, etc before voting yes.  In the past, I have worked 2 jobs to provide the things I wanted and where I wanted to live, not expecting to make $13+ hour, because they were entry level jobs, and worked my way to better myself by applying and interviewing for non entry level positions.

[stonecoldstevebernier]

Its a complicated debate because yeah, a $20 wage would mean massive cuts for a lot of companies and raising prices for others to cover for the increase in wages. If there was a way to raise it for certain sectors but not all, I'd be for it... but I have no idea how to make that work legally. A lot of food service and retail employees aren't working there to make a living, those are transition jobs for (mostly) high school/university students or people just getting started in the workforce after high school. You don't really need to pay those people $20 an hour and if you did, the companies would slash their budgets to protect their bottom line. A few years back when I was still in university, I worked for minimum wage at a movie theatre - basically the cheapest kind of company you'll ever see. They keep their staffing costs at the bare minimum and never give raises, and they inflate the prices of tickets and food to maximize profits. But to be fair, at the time I didn't really need anything more than minimum wage since all I was paying for was my textbooks and the rest was spending money, and all my coworkers were in a similar boat. Everyone who worked there was either in high school, university, or saving up for university (excluding the managers). You didn't have anyone who was raising a family or trying to support themselves.

My point is, at jobs like those (as cheap/greedy as the companies are) the employees don't really need a $20/hr wage, or even a $15/hr wage. But when you get past that stage of life and you're struggling to make ends meet on your own, that's different... so I wish there was some way to separate the two, or make a cut-off line somehow so certain industries have a higher living wage. I agree that anybody who works their tail off for 40+ hours a week should absolutely be given a suitable wage to support their own necessities but I'm not enough of a social/legal expert to really know how to ensure that... I suppose if there was a perfect way, we'd have the system in place already. Raising minimum wage as a blanket measure doesn't seem like the solution.

[Nuxfanabroad]

Love these euphemistic expressions, like "living wage". Guess us poor hoi polloi had long been subsisting on(minimum pay, as in service jobs) a dying wage?

 

Can recall bartending/waitering back in the early 90's..knew plenty of folk that were just getting by, at the time. Surprised the whole system hasn't toppled over yet. Pretty close in 2008.

 

Now with the way gov'ts ramp up debt & then just print cash, it'll all be reduced to tp monopoly $ anyways. So live for today, & smoke'em if ya got'em.

[yoshiyoshi]

It doesn't matter how high the minimum wage is raised, costs will scale to make it unlivable. The problem isn't what they are paid, the problem is what everything costs. Our entire society is based around the concept of making as much profit as we can, and at best only band-aid solutions are ever put in place to help those who suffer as a result of it. Whenever attempts are made to try to make things better for those suffering, many people freak out about it and scream socialism like its a bad word and just say that they need to get jobs.

[Master 112]

Nothing will solve the poverty in the province until income assistance and, more importantly, disability assistance are tied to the cost of living--which is never going to happen.

[RRypien37]

I see it this way. If you are unhappy with your wage/salary, educate yourself further/get more qualifications/work harder/seek out further opportunities. 

[Aircool]

This is a simple issue, made complicated by self-entitled people who overvalue their worth. The concept of a minimum wage period, is a flawed one. It doesn't do anything to raise the standard of living. Prices of goods are all relative at the end of the day. How much does a farmer need to earn to sustain his lifestyle, relative to what people can pay for his produce, and what the grocery stores need as markup to pay their utilities/rent or mortgage/employees and make profit.... These are the things that determine cost. If you want to artificially inflate your currency by raising minimum wage, you aren't making any produce any cheaper relative to your earnings. You just make the number on the sticker larger. It's still going to be, after the adjustment, a multiple that is relative to minimum wage.

 

The reality is that your quality of life is a direct result of your profession, not your wage, as long as your are earning a competitive wage in your profession. If you aren't, that's your fault for not negotiating well, or not being informed on what the going rate for your profession is. When you become aware of the going rate, you go get that raise or find new employment where the pay is satisfactory. But the notion that someone that works at McDonalds is going to have a higher quality of life after an increase to minimum wage, well that notion is completely laughable. You work at McDonalds, your quality of life sucks, period.

 

What an increase to minimum wage will do is take away jobs, and kill small businesses. Small Businesses don't have the free cash of larger businesses, and they will struggle mightily to adapt to a sudden increase in their monthly expenses. They don't have the capital to absorb it while waiting for their services/products to sell at the new price. It also devalues any money you have in the bank, as that money doesn't get multiplied relative to the increase in minimum wage, but the price of goods sure does...

 

Anyone telling you that the free market doesn't work, is ignorant of history, and knows nothing of business. People will cite economists who state that raising the minimum wage would help, and I could cite equally as many economists that will say the opposite. Economics is a junk science, correction social science, that has proven to be unreliable in making predictions on the state of the economy. Those who have proven to have made successful economic predictions like Peter Schiff have done so using fundamental business principles when analyzing policy as opposed to economic models.

[Ryan Strome]

5 hours ago, RRypien37 said:

I see it this way. If you are unhappy with your wage/salary, educate yourself further/get more qualifications/work harder/seek out further opportunities. 

I assume some won't like this answer but I pretty much agree with you. I will add though B.C is the highest cost of living while being 4TH in pay across Canada so that is problem as well. 

[inane]

6 hours ago, RRypien37 said:

I see it this way. If you are unhappy with your wage/salary, educate yourself further/get more qualifications/work harder/seek out further opportunities. 

That's a great ideal, world isn't that simple anymore. 

[Dral]

I as well, can also post a nice story about life...

 

Quote

A supposed assignment actually turned in by two English students:

 

 

---

 


Rebecca and Gary
English 44A
Creative Writing
Prof Miller

 

In-class Assignment for Wednesday

 

Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

 

* * * * * *

 


At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So camomile was out of the question.

Meanwhile,

Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. “A.S. Harris to Geostation 17,” he said into his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far…” But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.


He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. “Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,” Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth — when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. “Why must one lose one’s innocence to become a woman?” she pondered wistfully.

Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu’udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu’udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. “We can’t allow this! I’m going to veto that treaty! Let’s blow ’em out of the sky!”


This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

Yeah? Well, you’re a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.


You total $*&.

Stupid %&#$!.

 

Turns out, if you don't want to live in poverty, while living in the western world, you only need to do 3 things

1 - graduate highschool

2- get a job

3 - don't have a kid until you are married....

 

You do those 3 things and you will, generally speaking, move from poverty to middle class.... middle class to upper class....

 

 

[CanuckinEdm]

Anyone that thinks raising the minimum wage to crazy heights will help is just stupid. If a Mcdonalds worker makes at minimum $15.00 or $20.00 that just means a burger fries and a drink will now be $12.00 or $17.00 everything will go up accordingly. It just pushes the poverty line from whatever minimum wage is now to whatever the wage will be.

[Ryan Strome]

28 minutes ago, inane said:

That's a great ideal, world isn't that simple anymore. 

Since about late 2015 right?

 

 

[Ryan Strome]

2 minutes ago, CanuckinEdm said:

Anyone that thinks raising the minimum wage to crazy heights will help is just stupid. If a Mcdonalds worker makes at minimum $15.00 or $20.00 that just means a burger fries and a drink will now be $12.00 or $17.00 everything will go up accordingly. It just pushes the poverty line from whatever minimum wage is now to whatever the wage will be.

Yup you're right. Look at Australia.

[inane]

2 minutes ago, Ryan Strome said:

Since about late 2015 right?

 

 

Sweet meme. Way to discuss the point. 

[Ryan Strome]

1 minute ago, inane said:

Sweet meme. Way to discuss the point. 

Sorry, should I have posted a bunch of tweets about JT golfing?

[Ryan Strome]

2 minutes ago, inane said:

Sweet meme. Way to discuss the point. 

 

36 minutes ago, inane said:

That's a great ideal, world isn't that simple anymore. 

You mean like how you discuss things?