Anti-poverty advocates rally for an increase to minimum wage rates
The working class in Canada’s most populous province are in bad shape — and will only get worse if changes aren’t made, a recent study revealed.
Released by the Wellesley Institute in Toronto at the end of July, Rising Inequality, Declining Health showed the health and overall well-being of Ontario’s working poor is in sharp decline compared to previous years.
The numbers are grim. Between 1996 and 2009, workers below the poverty line who rated their health as "excellent or very good" dropped from 68 per cent to 49 per cent. Even more drastic is that the eight per cent of workers who deemed their health "fair or poor" more than doubled, up to 19 per cent. Whereas the study primarily focused on Ontario, the same trends were mirrored across the country — but less extreme. The study concluded that, in Ontario, those who lived and worked in poverty self-assessed themselves to have much worse health than those workers who made enough to support themselves.
Experts in the industry have chalked that up to deteriorating working conditions, changes to the labour market and low wages.
Sheila Block, the study’s lead author, said the ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the poor is likely the culprit. And as the paycheque goes, so goes the worker’s health.
Though Block said the study did not look directly at causes, it’s easy to draw these conclusions based on previous research reports. She cited inaccessible health care benefits, inefficient wages, precarious work and outdated employment legislation as among some of those causes.
"If you’re not making enough money, then you don’t make enough money to buy healthy food for yourself and your family, you can’t afford to be living in healthy housing, you can’t afford those kinds of health-enhancing things," Block explained. "If you’re living in working poverty, you’re less likely to have benefits and if you don’t have benefits then it’s more difficult to fill prescriptions or to get dental care."
Leilani Farha, executive director at Canada Without Poverty (CWP), a national charitable organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty, echoed those beliefs. Typically, the working poor find themselves employed in the service industry, she said, citing restaurants and grocery and convenience stores as examples.
"They are jobs where you are on your feet a lot, all day, with very few breaks. They are jobs that don’t often have health care packages attached to them," Farha explained. "The only health care you’re getting then is what you’re getting under OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan). OHIP benefits are great compared to what we have south of the border, but they do not cover everything… Prescription drugs are just expensive and what people do, because they’re so low-income, they go without those drugs."
So it comes as no surprise those factors add up to the self-perception of poor mental and physical health.
The Wellesley report has fuelled advocates lobbying to raise the provincial minimum wage in Ontario, which currently sits at $10.25 per hour. Block argued increasing that number has the potential to lift those out of poverty.
"We also need to look at the social safety net. If people are more likely to be moving from one job to another, then we really have to look at enhancements to employment insurance to provide that safety net for people, and also look at different ways of providing health benefits," she added. "So we should be moving to a national Pharmacare plan if people are less likely to be receiving those benefits from their employer. How can we make sure that the work arrangements and the supports that people have keep up with the changes in the labour market?"
The answer, according to the CWP, is to provide the working class with a living wage so they will be able to afford basic necessities to enhance their quality of life. Think food, electricity, transportation and health care.
"My organization is committed to seeing a national anti-poverty plan," Farha said. "We see it having to include protections around inadequate housing, protections around food security, protections around health — for instance universal Pharmacare — child care, and a whole set of recommendations on employment issues. Living wage, that is essential. Minimum wage needs to be set at living wage rates."
And sometimes, it’s the little things that can make a big difference, she noted. For instance, in European countries she said she noticed cashiers at grocery stores sitting on stools. Implementing small practices such as having the option to rest during a long shift can have a profound impact on the health of those workers, she noted.
In mid-July, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour struck an advisory panel — headed by Anil Verma, a professor of HR management at the University of Toronto — to examine the minimum wage system. That process involves discussions with businesses, labour groups, workers and anti-poverty advocates. Currently, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Ontario are the only places in Canada without a defined minimum wage rubric in place.
Teresa Piruzza, minister of children and youth services working on the minimum wage file alongside the labour minister, said this latest report points to the recent transformation of the labour force.
"Many of the jobs are either seasonal or temporary, or you have individuals working more than one job in order to make ends meet," she said. "I think over time we’ve seen employers going towards contract workers, and with these seasonal or temporary contract-type positions, oftentimes they won’t come with extended health benefits. Obviously we can do as much as can through our health care system, but we know that there’s a difference between extended health care plans with employers."
The labour ministry has also responded by increasing the number of employment standards inspectors who will conduct more inspections to ensure employers are compliant with legislation. Recommendations from the minimum wage advisory panel are due back this winter.
