Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke NDP
Media Release for March 20, 2007.
Last December, Dalton McGuinty gave himself a $40,000 pay raise. In February he gave Ontario’s 200,000 minimum wage workers a $450 pay raise by raising the minimum wage in Ontario to $8.00 an hour. Meanwhile, the NDP’s private members’ bill calling for an increase of the minimum wage to $10 has languished in the Ontario legislature since October. Over 1.2 million Ontarians, mainly women, young people and new Canadians, currently earn less than $10 per hour, the minimum anti-poverty groups say is required to live decently in most of Ontario.
Provincial MPP, John Yakabuski, also voted himself a $22,000 raise (a minimum wage worker currently only earns $16,000 for a 40 hour week, 52 weeks a year). The NDP was the only party to oppose these increases for Ontario politicians.
“It is simply unacceptable that someone working full-time cannot live on their wages”, said Felicite Stairs, NDP Provincial Riding Association President for Renfrew, Nipissing Pembroke. “Even in Renfrew County, where our cost of living is lower than in the city, our current $8 minimum wage barely brings a single person’s income up to the poverty line, and can’t possibly support a family. We think that if the Liberals can give themselves such a big handout, they can help poor workers”. In real terms, even with the recent 25 cent increase, the minimum wage has declined by nearly 9% since 1995 and 16% since 1976.
Over three quarters of workers earning under $10 an hour work for big multi-national corporations like Walmart, McDonalds and Shell who are making record profits — on the backs of their poorly paid workers. “Nor does the bad news stop here”, added Ms. Stairs. “Many low-paid jobs tend to be lower quality jobs in other respects, with little job security, irregular hours, and few if any benefits actually provided by the employer, rather than out of their own meagre wages”.
“Raising the minimum wage is a win-win situation here in Renfrew County, because low-wage workers spend all their money locally,” says Stairs. “Low wage workers spend their money on the basics in life, not in off-shore investments or out of country vacations, so workers are better off, and so are local business people”.
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