Chapter activist Roy Brady.
The Council of Canadians Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter supports a higher minimum wage for working people.
The Peterborough Examiner reports, “Ontario’s lowest paid workers will get a pay increase this year. The Kathleen Wynne government has announced the general minimum wage will rise Oct. 1 to $11.25 an hour from $11. …[But] a [Peterborough Social Council] report from 2013 stated that two Peterborough parents, working 40 hours a week, needed to each make $16.47 an hour to support themselves and two children. …Anti-poverty activists have pushed for a $14 minimum wage. One of those local advocates, Roy Brady, said the province should be raising minimum wage to $14 immediately.”
In November 2013, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives noted that the minimum wage in Ontario – it was $10.25 per hour then, it was increased to $11.00 this past June – was below the poverty line for full-time workers and short of living-wage calculations across the province (ranging from $18.69 in Halton to $14.95 in Hamilton). At that time, they recommended a minimum wage of $14.50 be implemented by 2016.
In an October 2014 study by the CCPA, Jim Stanford and Jordan Brennan countered the assertion that a higher minimum wage would result in higher unemployment levels. They wrote, “Claims that higher minimum wages will inevitably cause measurable negative consequences (especially for young workers and those in low-wage industries) are not consistent with empirical evidence from the Canadian provinces. Minimum wage regulations do not have important consequences on employment outcomes in either direction. Not surprisingly, employment outcomes depend first and foremost on the overall level of spending and macroeconomic activity.”
The CCPA has also found a higher minimum wage would benefit companies with increased employee retention and the broader economy with more individuals with greater purchasing power.
