Victoria Meyer | Contributor
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
Currently, the minimum wage in Ontario is $14 an hour, which falls short of ensuring full-time work pays enough to make a living. It was scheduled to rise to $15 an hour this year, but the current provincial government has decided, instead, to freeze the minimum wage at $14.
I believe that $14 an hour is too low as compared to the current living wage, but $15 would have been a large increase and a good start to catch up with inflation,” says Sheila Block of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives “$14 is still good progress, but since it was rolled back it affected minimum wage workers negatively.”
The minimum wage is regarded as the legislative floor for hourly wages, and it should cover everyday costs for all workers. However, there are a number of exclusions not taken into consideration.
Since the minimum wage is so low in Ontario, young adults struggle to pay for their daily expenses including schooling, transportation, housing and groceries. Regardless of where they are in their life, a minimum wage job does not cover the living expenses of Ontario.
According to Statistics Canada, 52 per cent of Canada’s working population aged 15-24 earn the mandated minimum wage — 77.8 per cent of those minimum wage workers live in Ontario.
Many students can relate to the struggles of having to keep up with living expenses.
University of Guelph-Humber student Lucas Neto, 21, says he worked a minimum wage job from age 16 to 18.
“For me, at this age, I had a lot saved up and purchased my first car and paid off my first year of university. Of course, I had help from scholarships and my parents paying my car insurance. Without this financial assistance my perspective would be completely different,” says Neto.
Now, Neto earns $20.81 an hour and was able to work full-time over the last few summers, which helped pay for his university tuition. Still, he struggles to stay on top of other expenses.
“Although I have been fortunate to work at a higher wage job, this doesn’t leave me with too much room to spend more money,” Neto explains. “I can only imagine how difficult it is to work the minimum wage while having to pay for tuition, books, food, residence, a car, insurance, etc.”
University of Guelph-Humber student Brooklynn Lake, 21, has been working a minimum wage job for over six years. Lake explains: “Although my job has provided me with some funds for schooling, I still have to make sure that I have done the extra work to receive scholarships to cover my school payments. As well, it has made it difficult for me to ensure that I have enough funds for transportation as well, with bus fares increasing and not being able to afford a car for school and work”.
Lake believes that the minimum wage is not comparable to a living wage. “It has been difficult to live off of the wage I have been receiving for these six years”.
Young adults feel pressured to further their education in hopes of getting a well-paid job, but this also comes with the uncertainty of getting the occupation for which they studied so hard. Many are stuck working minimum wage jobs while paying off their student loans.
York alumnus Alex Few, 23, says that student debt can often weigh heavy on young adults’ shoulders. “Most of us have the hope that post-secondary will bring a well-paying job, but in reality, that’s not always the case,” says Few.
“I have friends who work in retail and other underpaid positions to help pay for school or other necessities, and I have first-hand seen the stress that results from large expenses and low salaries”
Few believes that the minimum wage needs to reflect growing expenses so that the wellbeing of people her age don’t have to be at stake.
According to a 2013 report by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a large majority of millennials who work in minimum wage jobs are characterized by four main things: low pay, few or no benefits, part-time or casual work, and greater risk of injury. Many minimum wage workers also have no choice but to rely on low-income jobs to support themselves.
Some people worry that raising the minimum wage to a more adequate living wage could lead to job losses and would affect employees positively or negatively. However, this is not the case, according to Block.
Extensive academic research has been progressive on this issue and claims that the minimum wage increase does not increase unemployment but, instead, it increases wages for families as well as increases the pay rates of workers earning slightly over the minimum wage,” Block says.
“So, overall, it is a positive impact.”
The bar is set too low in Ontario and it is time for the Ontario government to increase the minimum wage to benefit all low-income workers.
