Kanchi Uttamchandani | Assistant News Editor
Featured image: Ontario has announced an increase in minimum wage by 15 cents, from $11.25 to $11.40. | Courtesy of Fight for $15 & Fairness – York U
The Fight for $15 & Fairness campaign for fair wages and improved working conditions for Ontario workers seems to be storming ahead, though critics say a higher minimum wage means more expensive goods and services and reduced hours.
Gayle McFadden, national executive representative for Canadian Federation of Students Ontario and former YFS vice-president operations, says it is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen working conditions for everyone in the wake of the provincial government’s ongoing review of labour laws.
“This includes legislating fair schedules with sufficient hours, paid sick days, ensuring the right to organize, enforcing respect at work and rules that protect everyone and raising the minimum wage to $15,” she says.
McFadden emphasizes that student unions strongly support the Fight for $15 & Fairness campaign.
“It makes perfect sense that our members would support this campaign, as students are often forced to work several part-time and precarious jobs in order to make ends meet in the wake of the highest tuition fees in the country,” she says.
On the other hand, critics say a higher minimum wage will “nullify” the original intent of a $15 minimum wage and suffocate production.
“If minimum wage is increased, labour becomes more expensive. Employers will need to either raise the cost of goods and services, or cut labour hours,” says Nicole Tilin, president of Campus Conservatives at York.
York administrative studies professor Natalie Guriel thinks the debate to increase the minimum wage in Ontario to $15 per hour is a complex one, as the increase would have a significant impact on various stakeholders and areas of the economy.
Guriel believes raising the minimum wage will have implications for entrepreneurs and businesses, with the former being potentially discouraged to even start a business due to high cost of hiring labour, and the latter outsourcing jobs abroad or hiring temporary foreign workers to maintain lower labour costs.
“The greatest threat to the economy is for businesses to leave Canada altogether; then both higher-paid and lower-paid jobs leave Canada for good,” she adds.
David Bush, a Fight for $15 & Fairness organizer, thinks the critics are just wrong and engaging in scare mongering, asserting that inflation is at all time low and the minimum wage in real terms has barely risen since the 1970s.
He argues that raising the minimum wage is about shifting who gets what share of profits created in society. “The big five banks pulled in a combined $9.87 billion in profits last quarter alone. That is happening at the same time 1.5 million or so people in Ontario are paid below $15 an hour,” he says.
McFadden states there is almost no evidence of a relationship between a higher minimum wage and employment levels, as labour market performance in Canadian provinces appears to be driven overwhelmingly by demand conditions.
Third-year economics student Supraja Vadlamani says the increase is certainly an improvement, although she is unsure whether it will be enough to dig indebted workers out of the hole they are in.
Political science professor Greg Albo says the main low-income workers are those who are less-educated and disabled among older people, as well as young workers just entering the labour force.
“Within these groups, there is then a further skew to women, people of colour and recent immigrants,” says Albo.
Albo believes that while low-wage jobs are concentrated in sectors such as retail, fast-food chains and cleaning, they are spreading into other areas of work as the downward pressure on wages across occupations continues.
“Minimum wages really can’t be separated from the labour standards issue. Raising the rates for welfare recipients is also crucial. This is no longer the time to sit on the political sidelines,” he adds.
The Rally for Decent Work, attended by thousands, was organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour with community partner Fight for $15 & Fairness campaign at Queen’s Park. The campaign is endorsed by York community groups, including YFS, YUGSA, OPIRG, Osgoode Law Union and Unite Here Local 75.
