BY JEFF SHANTZ
TORONTO — It's high time Ontario's low-income workers received a raise. The minimum wage in Ontario has been frozen at C$6.85/hour ($6.40 for students and $5.95 for liquor servers) throughout the eight brutal years of Tory rule. During that time, Ontario's minimum wage slipped from the highest in Canada in 1995 to fifth place today.
Even worse, inflation since 1995 has eroded the real value of the minimum wage by 20%. Minimum-wage earners are doing badly compared to other wage earners, taking in only 38.5% of the average earnings for all workers in Ontario for 2001, compared to 44.8% in Quebec and 46.2% in British Columbia. This leaves people earning well below poverty wages. In fact, someone earning minimum wage and working 35 hours per week for a full year would be left almost $7000 below the poverty line.
Almost 250,000 Ontarians are compelled to work for these poverty wages. At least as many more have to take jobs for wages only slightly above the minimum-wage level. Taken together, 25% of Ontarians earn less than poverty-level wages — 31% of women, 32% of people of colour and 41% of recent immigrants work for wages below the poverty level.
Incredibly, minimum-wage rates in Canada are lower than in most industrialised countries and well below those in the US. Ontario is well behind nearby US states, such as New York and Michigan ($8.15 each), Maine ($7.30), Vermont ($7.94) and Massachusetts ($8.57).
Ontario is the only Canadian province not to have at least some increases in the minimum wage since 1998. This is a situation of gross exploitation of workers by Ontario businesses and their Tory mouthpieces. In a country whose political leaders boast of the best performing economy in the G8, the country club of wealthy nations, it is nothing less than a shameful disgrace.
Politicians and business groups often claim that a minimum-wage increase will drive away business investment and therefore cost jobs. Supposedly, labour will be "priced out of the market". This is absolutely untrue. Labour, as the primary source of value, is not like other commodities and bosses can't choose to do without it. Research in Canada and the US shows that increases to the minimum wage actually benefit the economy, while increasing the total amount of money going to low-wage workers. There is little evidence from anywhere in Canada or the US that minimum-wage increases lead to increased unemployment. In 1999, Manitoba increased the minimum wage and saw unemployment fall to its lowest level in a generation (below 5%). Of course, this doesn't even take into account the crucial social benefits that come from reducing poverty.
Conservatives also argue that most minimum-wage workers are mostly middle-class teenagers doing after-school or summer work while living at home. In fact, most minimum-wage workers are adults (61% according to Statistics Canada) and almost half are working full time. Many of the part-timers hold more than one job. Most minimum-wage earners, around 64%, are women. College and university students trying to cover increasingly expensive tuition costs often have to take minimum-wage jobs. This burden is especially harsh for students from lower-income backgrounds.
In Ontario, this is all part of a broader neoliberal assault on workers. In addition to freezing minimum-wage rates, the provincial government has cut social assistance rates by 21.6% in 1995. Thus, after inflation, Ontario's poorest residents have suffered an income decline of almost 40% over the past eight years.
With a provincial election looming, two complimentary campaigns have been begun to fight the Tory government, and any successor, over this brutal situation. On June 9, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) sent delegations to the offices of several members of provincial parliament of the ruling Tory and opposition Liberal parties to hand-deliver notices to each party that direct actions will be taken against them over these issues.
Additionally, a broad-based campaign under the banner of "Ontario needs a raise" has been initiated by a coalition of unionists, low-income workers and anti-poverty activists to press for an increase to social assistance and minimum wage rates. The Canadian Auto Workers, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees and Canadian Union of Public Employees already support the campaign, with more support from other unions expected.
In addition, a longer term "Justice for workers" movement has been pressing politicians representing low-income neighbourhoods in Toronto to support an increase in the minimum wage.
Significantly, these campaigns are working to overcome the false divide between the "working" and "non-working" poor that the current government has tried so hard to construct. All workers have a right to live in dignity, whether they are currently employed or not.
The brutally low social-assistance rates and the poverty-assuring minimum wage are linked in the broader attack on workers and must be fought together. Whichever party takes control of government in Ontario after the elections, the cuts to welfare must be reversed and wage rates increased to account for inflation. The government must also raise the minimum wage to at least $10 per hour. As well, it should follow the example of Washington state and index the minimum wage to cost of living increases or to a percentage of average wages above 50%. No worker should have to settle for anything less.
Of course, workers cannot rely on any government to provide a decent living since governments exist to aid and protect capital. This is why the campaigns and coalitions, like OCAP and "Ontario needs a raise", which bring together employed and unemployed, unionised and non-unionised workers against the divide-and-conquer policies of bosses and their governments, are so crucial.
From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.
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