A living wage is the hourly rate that allows working people to have a decent quality of life. Calculated for a family of four with both parents working full time (37.5 hours per week), it provides enough income to cover basic expenses like housing, food, clothing, utility bills and transportation, plus a modest amount for health insurance (prescription drugs and dental care), recreation and entertainment.
“No one who works full time should have to live in poverty.” This statement several years ago by former president Barack Obama, echoing similar statements by many other people, underlies the call to employers to pay their employees a living wage.
How much is a living wage in Halton?
The living wage is the hourly rate that ensures that a person working full time, full year, earns enough to participate in the normal life of their community. In Halton the rate has been calculated by researchers at Community Development Halton (CDH) to be $20.38 per hour (2019). If the employer pays benefits, the hourly rate would be reduced accordingly.
The 2019 living wage calculation uses the Canadian Living Wage Framework: A National Methodology for Calculating the Living Wage in Your Community and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Ontario (CCPA) Family Expense Workbook to develop the living wage calculation. The Family Expense Workbook was updated by the Ontario Living Wage Network and the living wage calculation generated using the CCPA-Ontario Living Wage Calculator. The tool used to calculate community expenses, taxes and government transfers is updated on an annual basis. The 2019 calculator update was completed by Iglika Ivanova from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) in British Columbia.
For more details about what is included and what is not included in the living wage calculation please see the CDH report, Calculating a Living Wage for Halton – 2019 Update, is available at https://cdhalton.ca/2019/11/04/calculating-a-living-wage-for-halton-2019-update/
The 2016 report, Calculating a Living Wage for Halton – 2016 Update, is available at https://cdhalton.ca/2017/05/02/living-wage-2016-update/
The 2013 report, Calculating a Living Wage for Halton, is available at https://cdhalton.ca/2013/05/17/living-wage-discussion/, as all as A Discussion of a Living Wage for Halton: https://cdhalton.ca/2013/09/03/cd1806/
What about the minimum wage?
On June 1, 2017 the Ontario Government announced that the minimum wage would rise from $11.40 an hour to $14.00 an hour on January 1, 2018, and to $15.00 an hour on January 1, 2019. As about 30 per cent of workers currently earn less than $15 an hour, these increases will be welcomed by many thousands of workers. Overall, they will raise many thousands of families above the poverty line. However, the $15 an hour wage rate was not implemented, as a new provincial government was elected in 2018 that froze the rate at $14 an hour until September 2020.
While entirely welcome, the minimum wage of $14.00 an hour is still over $6.00 an hour less than the living wage for Halton in 2019. That extra amount is significant as it would enable a typical family to afford, not only the basic costs of housing, food, utilities and transportation, but also many other things that most families take for granted. Instead of living on the edge of poverty, they would be able to participate in the normal life of the community in which they live, and that would contribute greatly to their sense of well being.
Basic Income or a Guaranteed Annual Income
The living wage campaign is only one approach to boosting incomes in an economy in which many people work for low wages. Another approach is to ensure that all households receive a Basic Income (or a Guaranteed Annual Income) sufficient to put them above the poverty line. The Ontario Government launched a Basic Income Pilot project in the spring of 2017, but saw an early cancellation of the pilot when a new provincial government was elected in 2018. See the report, Basic Income Consultations: What We Heard, March 2017: https://www.ontario.ca/page/basic-income-consultations-what-we-heard, https://files.ontario.ca/bi_wwh_final_english.pdf
In the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), only half of working adults have full-time jobs with benefits and security. All the rest are “precariously employed”—working either full-time or part-time with no benefits or job security. Many have jobs that are temporary or casual, or they are hired on short-term contracts.
A recent video about precarious employment in Halton brings to life some ways in which precarious work affects people, particularly young people:
When one of the people in the video is asked how she would feel if she were paid $15.00 per hour, she answers, “That would be awesome!” That amount is less than the living wage for Halton, but her heartfelt response draws attention to the constant struggle of people suffering from what has been called “the scourge of low wages.”