Sudbury councilors push to establish living wage for city employees

The City of Greater Sudbury could soon be exploring the idea of becoming a living wage employer.

At an upcoming finance committee meeting, Councillors Deb McIntosh and Mike Jakubo are expected to put forward a motion asking city staff to bring back a report outlining the impact increasing some employees' wages would have on the municipality.

According to the Ontario Living Wage Network, a living wage– the amount needed to cover basic expenses and participate in the community– in Sudbury is $16.98 an hour.

McIntosh says most city employees already earn more than that amount, but there are some positions that pay less. 

"Let's say we have a cleaning contractor at Tom Davies Square," McIntosh said. "Are those people receiving a living wage?"

"We're asking for a report just to provide us with options and recommendations of how we could possibly move toward a living wage in Greater Sudbury."

McIntosh said the idea was planted after seeing the Region of Waterloo mulling over the same idea– setting a living wage for its employees and contractors– in November.

So far, McInstosh said, she's seeing signs in Sudbury that local employers are willing to offer more pay to hire or keep qualified employees.

"We want more people to start thinking about it so people can buy their own socks and buy their own peanut butter and be able to pay the rent," she said. "And not have to rely on social services or food banks, et cetera."

"I think that giving people dignity is really, really important."

TT Scott, communications officer for the Sudbury Workers Education and Advocacy Centre, said her group has been pushing for a living wage for city employees from as far back as 2018.

"Those that aren't making this living wage, those few employees who are making less…are not benefiting, they are suffering," Scott said. "They're living in amongst poverty."

And those particular jobs or roles aren't distributed equally, she said. 

"We have seen before that the majority of these employees…are part-time employees, or international students, or female workers or people of colour or black Indigenous people of colour."

"We've seen that these people are typically marginalized groups who are forced in this cycle," Scott said. "So these are exactly the groups and these are exactly the workers who we want to fight for, who we want to make sure are making that same minimum wage, that same living wage that others are making, even though it's just a $2 difference." 

The motion to create a report, if passed by the finance committee, is expected to be ready in April.