A-Infos (en) Canada, Ontario, Anarchist journal, Linchpin #3 - A Living Wage

A full time job should keep you OUT of poverty, not IN it! Is that not the cure 
prescribed by politicians and much of the public for poverty: to merely have 
people who are homeless and on assistance get a job? Meg R. looks at the issue 
of a living wage. ---- Although never a sufficient solution to end poverty, the 
attainment of a full time job used to provide some recourse for the reduction of 
the intensity of poverty experienced. ---- However, this is no longer so as the 
?working poor? are the fastest growing population experiencing poverty. In the 
last fifteen years, real wages have fallen significantly for middle and low 
income earners, especially for women, immigrants and youth. In 2005, 41% of 
Canadian low income children lived with families where at least one wage earner 
was employed full time (2007 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty).

The downward pressure on wages contributing to increasing poverty has become a 
defining characteristic of the last three decades. It is representative of the 
global polarization of income and concentration of power and wealth in the hands 
of a few elite.
This concentration is facilitated through the adoption of neo-liberal policies 
accompanying economic globalization which favor profit over people. A key 
component of such policies is the reduction of the costs of labour, primarily 
wages. Governments and businesses adopt these policies at the expense of 
workers, especially those already marginalized in society. As a result, workers 
in Hamilton and around the world are struggling to provide food, shelter, health 
care, education and child care for themselves and their families. The increasing 
levels of poverty and number of working poor provide living proof that it is 
time for a living wage.
We must challenge the ideologies of the elite, businesses, and government 
officials. We must also hold them accountable for their cost cutting actions 
that rob people of decent standards of living. The people of Hamilton, 
especially those living in poverty, along with other student groups, members of 
the labour movement and social justice activists must join together to secure an 
environment within the city that upholds human dignity for all.
Although not an easy task, it is by no means an impossible task. A living wage 
campaign has already taken shape in the city and action plans are being carried 
out. This initiative is a city wide, inclusive movement that seeks to secure 
wage rates that enable workers to support their families above the poverty line 
and maintain a dignified standard of living. The coalition is providing a 
multi-pronged campaign of public information and mobilization to compel 
prominent decision makers in Hamilton to change their wage policies. The living 
wage coalition is closely linked to the Coalition for Fair Income and Employment 
at McMaster University, and living wage movements across the country and North 
America.
The times of greatest success for social change have been the times when people 
throughout an entire community have come together to pursue a common goal, 
despite their differences. It is has been their shared consciousness that has 
enabled them to overcome elitist employer and governmental barriers that 
relegate them to impoverishment and the margins of society. It will be our 
shared consciousness that overcomes Hamilton?s pursuit of profit over people. It 
will be our shared consciousness that compels businesses and the government to 
become responsible for the standard of living of those they employ.
The movement begins when we meet to share ideas and forge common ground? it 
continues when we act against the decreasing wage rates and increasing poverty 
rates. Our work in this area ends when every worker in Hamilton is guaranteed 
fair and living wages.

GET ACTIVE>> To join the Living Wage Coalition of Hamilton, contact Deirdre 
Pike, Social Planner at the SPRC at 905-522- 1148
(Original version of article published in Poverty Watch, Spring 2006, Volume 
One, Issue 4, a publication of the Income Security Working Group).
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