Who pays a living wage?

Toronto area labour council to hand out stickers to stores that pay $10 an hour

First there was fair-trade coffee and other products. Soon there will be "fair-wage" employers — at least in the Toronto area.

The Toronto and York Region Labour Council plans to distribute thousands of window stickers to local stores that pay employees at least $10 an hour so customers and passers-by will know which stores pay employees a living wage.

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale-High Park), an advocate for raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour, hopes the initiative will attract socially-conscious customers and show merchants that paying employees well is good for business.

The Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, which represents 25,000 small business owners, also supports the plan. Paying workers better is good for business because it means they'll have more money to spend in their neighbourhood, said John Kiru, executive director of the association.

Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton and federal NDP Leader Jack Layton recently announced that the $10-an-hour minimum wage would be an issue in the next provincial and federal elections.

The leaders said the issue of raising the provincial minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10 an hour, as well as revisiting the idea of a national minimum wage, would be part of their respective campaign platforms.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has said a rapid minimum wage increase could cost thousands of jobs because more than one million Ontarians earn less than $10 an hour.

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