September 30, 2008

Report shows workers need at least $16.74 an hour to meet basic needs and support a family

The community campaign for a living wage has received another boost with the release of new research showing that workers in Vancouver need at least $16.74 an hour – and $16.39 an hour in Victoria – to support their families.

The living wage calculation was released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, and the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria at a September 25 news conference.

Noting that BC has had the hightest child poverty rate in Canada for the past five years, First Call’s Adrienne Montani told the news conference that a living wage is fundamental to the struggle to eliminate child poverty in our communities.

“For those who seek to end child poverty, this is truly where the rubber hits the road,” she said. “What does it say about our economy when famlies are doing all the right things – working hard and working long hours – and yet have to choose between paying the rent or putting food on the table?”

Unlike the legislated minimum wage, the living wage calculation is based on what it costs a two-earner family with two young children to meet such basic expenses as housing, food, child care and transportation.  It allows families to escape poverty and severe financial stress, ensure healthy child development and participate fully in their communities.

But according to CCPA researcher Seth Klein, the calculation is still a modest one.  It does not include, for example, debt payments, savings for retirement, home ownership, savings for higher education or anything beyond minimal recreation and entertainment.

“One of the guiding principles of the project,” he explained, “was that it had to be reasonable and conservative.”

He said the living wage is first and foremost a call to private and public-sector employers to sustain families, but is also a call to government for programs and services that can help shift certain costs off the shoulders of individual families.

“For example, if we had a universal public child care system for children under six years old,” he said, “the living wage calculation would no longer have to include over $600 per month in child care costs.”

The report also pointed out that a living wage benefits employers, as well as workers and their families.  Living wages, explained Klein, are shown to improve recruitment and retention, enhance workers’ morale and create opportunities for employers to promote themselves as a living wage business or agency.

The study, Working for a Living Wage: Ensuring Paid Work Meets Basic Family Needs in Vancouver and Victoria, is a joint initiative of the CCPA and Simon Fraser University’s Economic Security Project.

The following is a letter sent by Jim Sinclair, President of the BC Federation of Labour, to the Editor of the Prince Rupert Daily News:

September 5, 2008

Dear Editor:

Rookie Labour Minister Iain Black is having a tough time explaining why the government has frozen the minimum wage for seven years.

Fresh in his new job he stuck close to the Liberal’s worn out explanation that an increase to the minimum wage is a job killer.

Now he’s trying to claim that the minimum wage isn’t even frozen.  Each year the government reviews the minimum wage and each year the government decided against raising it.  Therefore, according to the Minister, the minimum wage is not frozen.

He’s also decided to give wild exaggeration a try describing a $10 minimum wage as “catastrophic”.

The real catastrophe is trying to make ends meet at an hourly salary of $8 an hour.  The real catastrophe is losing 20,000 forestry jobs while his government sits idly by.

Instead of casting aspirations on why the Federation is fighting to increase the minimum wage, perhaps the Minister could explain why it it okay to increase the premier’s salary by 54 percent, increase MLA salaries by 29 percent and those of senior bureaucrats’ up to 43 percent, all the while refusing to increase the minimum wage for seven years.

 Jim Sinclair

President

September 17, 2008

As you may recall, last July, at the most recent meeting of the Council of the Federation, the Premiers confirmed that there will be decisive action and a deadline concerning labour mobility of qualified workers in Canada.  They have directed Internal Trade ministers to amend Chapter 7 of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) by January 1, 2009 in order to reach full labour mobility of qualified workers by April 1, 2009.  A qualified worker is defned as a licensed, certified, or registered worker by a regulatory authority.

As detailed below, affiliates may wish to intervene with provincial governments and regulatory bodies to ensure continuation of legitimate credential requirements.  These will have to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

The purpose of Chapter 7 of the Agreement on Internal Trade, negotiated in 1994-1995, was to enable any worker who is qualified in a province/ territory, to be granted access to employment opportunities in their occupation in other provinces and territories.  Before 2006, there were no defined deadlines for the implementation of full labour mobility in Canada. Government and regulatory bodies were encouraged to negotiate, on a voluntary basis, mutual recognitions of qualifications.  As a result, about two-thirds of the qualified workers currently enjoy full labour mobility in Canada.  But about one-third of the qualified workers still face barriers when they want to exercise their profession in other jurisdictions.

Trade ministers agreed, in September 2006, to establish a deadline of April 1, 2009, to ensure compliance by all regulatory bodies with the labour mobility provision of the AIT, and the latest decision of the Premiers reiterates this deadline.  The proposed amendment to the AIT and the compliance deadline will provide that any worker certified for an occupation by a regulatory authority of one province or territory will be recognized as qualified to practise that occupation by all other provinces and territories and such recognition will be granted expeditiously without further material training, examinations, or assessment requirements.  Premiers also directed that any exceptions to full labour mobility would have to be clearly identified and justifed as required to meet a legitimate objective such as the protection of health or public safety.  Furthermore, Premiers directed that by the Summer 2009 meeting of the Council of the Federation, these amendments will result in mutual recognition of occupational credentials among all provinces and territories.

In our view, the proposed amendments and deadline might have the following effects.  First, the amendments will add pressure on governments and regulatory bodies to reach mutual recognition of qualifications and full labour mobility of qualified workers.  Second, the amendments might increase downward pressure on the level of credentials recognized across Canada to exercise an occupation, since it is the government that requires extra qualifications, and that demonstration must be based on a defined legitimate objective, such as public security, safety and order.

Over the next few months, provincial and territorial governments should be contacting regulatory bodies to try to reach mutual agreements with other provincial governments and regulatory bodies, or to build  the rationale for the maintenance of barriers based on the legitimate objectives.

In the coming months, the CLC will keep track of information and developments about this issue at the federal level.  We encourage affiliates, who have licensed, certified or registered workers, to develop a course of action at the provincial/ territorial level and with regulatory bodies, with the objective to maintain the required qualifications and credentials of our qualified members while allowing their mobility between provinces and territories.