Canada's minimum-wage workers deserve more money, more respect

The Province of Ontario recently announced a move to increase the minimum wage to $11.25 per hour, something that will undoubtedly unleash a storm of commendation, ridicule, and all kinds of speculation on how this will affect the economy.

How many of those debates will even consider the message that society is sending to minimum-wage earners?

One of the most commonly-cited reasons for not raising the minimum wage is that jobs will disappear as employers find themselves hard-pressed to pay the kinds of wages workers want. The idea is that low wages encourage employers to create jobs and stimulate the economy, but statistics tell a different story.

In 2012, large companies employed 45.3 per cent of all minimum-wage workers in Canada, while at the same time, they cut jobs by the thousands. The Target closures are the biggest and most spectacular recent job losses, but they are not the only ones by far.

What justification do companies have for opposing minimum wage increases if they put people out of work regardless of the economic conditions at the time?

Minimum wage misinformation

Another problem is the stereotype of minimum wage earners as being teenagers making money to spend on cars and parties — something that is out of step with reality. In British Columbia, for example, about half of the minimum wage earners are over 25 years old, while 63 per cent of people in this category are women. Even if many of these workers are not the sole wage earners in the household, surely they deserve more respect and appreciation than a minimum wage implies.

The people working in these jobs are not necessarily slackers or unskilled people who are unfit for any other jobs besides the low-level ones they occupy. They could easily be people who have done all they thought they could to plan for their careers, only to find that the rules had changed and their preparations were no longer enough.   

For several years during the recent recession, minimum wages remained stagnant in some parts of Canada. Even now, they range from a low of $10 per hour in the Northwest Territories to a high of $11 per hour in Ontario (or $11.25 if the pending increase happens). Considering the costs of bus fare, work clothes, and the many other expenses associated with having a job, it is amazing that anyone on minimum wage can actually afford to go to work.

Some employers are genuinely unable to pay higher wages, and most workers would try to understand that, but other managers and company executives seem to derive a strange pleasure from paying as little as they can. When employers pay far less than they can afford and the employees know it, working with any enthusiasm or effort becomes a struggle.

When students in school or university work on projects or papers, they naturally spend extra time and effort on the assignments that are worth more marks, assuming the instructor rates assignments according to their relative importance. Similarly, when people are paid barely enough to live on, they are less likely than their higher-paid colleagues to devote much more time and energy than necessary to their careers, resulting in an uninspired, unmotivated workforce.

Nothing says “I don’t respect you or your work” like paying the lowest possible wage and then quibbling over every raise and each added benefit. Even volunteers, despite earning nothing for the work they do, frequently receive special recognition in the form of cards, gifts, or appreciation dinners.

For me, showing respect for workers by allowing them the dignity of a livable income is really what raising the minimum wage is about. Keeiping the wages livable through affordable housing, incremental increases, and other strategies is the next step, but the concept of paying people enough to live on is the basis for every decision that follows.

Susan Huebert is a Winnipeg writer and editor.