Even with the minimum wage increase on October 1, young Ontario residents are hardly making enough money to cover their basic living expenses
On March 31, 2023, the Ontario government announced it would be increasing minimum wage by 6.8 per cent to $16.55 an hour on Oct. 1, 2023. The Ford government stated that this pay raise will help offset the rising costs of living for nearly one million low-income workers. On the official Ontario government website Monte McNaughton, the former minister of labour in Ontario, declared the wage increase was a fair and balanced approach that would lead to building a stronger province for all residents.
But $16.55 an hour is still far away from truly being a fair wage.
A minimum wage is the lowest rate an employer is legally required to pay their employees. In Canada, minimum wage policy was created to protect workers from exploitation. However, minimum wage employees still face workplace mistreatment. Low-income workers are the most vulnerable to wage theft. They aren't paid for overtime work, are expected to do more work for less pay, and are not given their legally mandated meal breaks.
In 2018, 52.3 per cent of minimum wage workers were between the ages of 15 and 24 years old, making young Canadians the largest demographic at risk of minimum wage exploitation. In addition, young workers may not be aware of their rights as an employee, meaning they can be easily taken advantage of.
In my own experience working minimum wage jobs, I faced significant mistreatment. While working as a shift manager at McDonald's, I was rarely paid for my overtime work and I was never given medical benefits, despite being a full-time employee. I was also expected to pick up the slack for other employees and give up my breaks to help support staff during peak business hours. Yet I never received a raise for my additional work. I ultimately quit because I felt so unvalued by the company.
Other young Canadian workers are experiencing similar disparagement in their work environments.
Minimum wage tends to be the lowest number the government can get away with while still maintaining positive public perception. Even with the recent increase, working a minimum wage job can mean being condemned into poverty because these boosts fail to reflect the rising costs of living.
Even with the recent increase, working a minimum wage job can mean being condemned into poverty. Boosts in minimum wage fail to account for inflation. Minimum wage tends to be based upon the lowest number the government can get away with while still maintaining positive public perception.
As Ontario continues to grapple with inflation, it is also experiencing a housing crisis and growing food insecurity. Minimum wage doesn't allow people to live comfortably. Young Canadians are struggling to picture their futures as half are living paycheque-to-paycheque. And workers that insist on higher pay are often labelled as difficult, have their hours reduced or are fired. Similarly, increases in minimum wage are also linked to decreases in healthcare insurance offered by employers.
In contrast to minimum wage, a living wage is the hourly rate an employee must be paid, before taxes, to cover their basic living expenses. The Ontario Living Wage Network calculates living wages by taking into consideration the current costs of food, services, shelter, transportation, internet and cellphone plans among other expenses.
Living wages look like having your basic needs met consistently, while having money left over for other things meaningful to you. It means being able to eat nutritious food everyday, having access to services such as healthcare and being able to afford housing with the necessary amenities.
Living wages look like having your basic needs met consistently, while having money left over for other things meaningful to you. It means being able to eat nutritious food everyday, having access to services such as healthcare and being able to afford housing with the necessary amenities.
Living wages varies by region across Ontario. The OLWN determined that residents of the GTA should be paid $25.05 an hour and residents of Hamilton $20.80 an hour. Evidently, $16.55 an hour is far from being a living wage.
Employers have a corporate responsibility to protect their employees by providing them with the funds for affording a comfortable standard of living. To live without the constraints of poverty is a basic human right that must be respected.
The future doesn't need to be as unliveable as it seems. It is possible for more employers to start paying living wages. The OLWN certifies employers who provide living wages and publicly recognizes these businesses. Businesses that want to ensure their employees are able to live comfortably should look to their leading counterparts for guidance.
Introducing a living wage can provide businesses with many valuable benefits. When workers are paid well, businesses can become more profitable and sustainable. Living wages are a win-win for both employers and employees. Some companies are putting in the work, but our provincial government still has a long way to go if it truly wants to build a better, stronger province.
In search of increased job security, the Canadian Union of Public Employees 3903 Units 1, 2 and 3 went to strike after six months of bargaining with York University. Employees at Carleton University also recently opted to strike, advocating for pension benefits in the wake of confusion over language in the collective agreement. While CUPE 3906 is still bargaining, a strike is not off the table.
After rejecting the university’s offer, 3,000 teaching staff at York University walked off the job as part of a strike by CUPE 3903 on March 5. Although 60 per cent of teaching at York is facilitated by members of the union, the university has remained open and some classes have continued during the strike.
The strike at Carleton was led by support staff, including library and administrative employees, on March 5. On March 16, the union and university agreed to return to the bargaining table in hopes of resolving the labour dispute.
CUPE 3903 and 2424’s efforts follow a five-week-long strike by Ontario college instructors, which forced 500,000 students out of class and was ended through back-to-work legislation pushed by the province.
After rejecting the university’s offer, 3,000 teaching staff at York University walked off the job as part of a strike by CUPE 3903 on March 5.
On March 14, CUPE 3906 published letters to the unions at York and Carleton.
The letter to CUPE 2424 emphasized the union’s effort to advocate for improved retirement security and criticized Carleton’s neoliberal policies and unwillingness to acknowledge the importance of pensions for precarious support staff.
“As a local who represents primarily young workers who do not have access to a workplace pension, we find your defense of quality pensions for workers to be an inspiration,” read part of the letter to CUPE 2424.
The letter to York’s union praised its commitment to fighting issues arising from job precarity.
“Job security is an issue that we have here on campus too. Unit 1 members, specifically teaching assistants, only get four years guaranteed of teaching contracts,” said Sarah Wahab, CUPE 3906 vice president. “It’s not enough for us to complete our PhDs usually, so we’re kind of left in this limbo where we can’t find the funding we need in order to finish our dissertations.”
When asked about the likelihood that McMaster’s CUPE 3906 will go to strike after Unit 1 and 2 finish bargaining in 2019, CUPE 3906 president Angie Perez stated that it is invariably likely that, if the union is not listened to, it will call a strike vote.
The last time CUPE 3906 went to strike was in 2009, when teaching and research assistants sought increased wages and benefits from the university. This strike was short-lived, however, with 58 per cent of union members voting to accept the university’s offer after one week of striking.
“We do have a lot of issues regarding job security specifically. We’re living in a context where it’s getting harder and harder to live.”
Sarah Wahab
Vice president
CUPE 3906
Nevertheless, Wahab acknowledges that the union still has work to do on campus.
“We do have a lot of issues regarding job security specifically. We’re living in a context where it’s getting harder and harder to live. When that starts to happen, strikes start to happen,” said Wahab. “People need to rise up and demand what they deserve.”
Broadly speaking, CUPE 3906 sympathizes with students as they get trapped in a messy and unfortunate situation as a result of a strike. Nevertheless, they argue that students should direct their frustration to the university, not the union.
“The problem is that the narrative is controlled by the universities,” said Perez, who explains that because the university accepts students’ tuition dollars, it should be held accountable to accommodate students in the event of strike action.
Precarious employment continues to be on the rise at McMaster and across the province. As CUPE 3906’s Units 1 and 2 continue to bargain with the university, the union is standing in solidarity with the unions at York and Carleton.
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There are a number of full-time positions open to graduating students that the McMaster Students Union employs each year. Each one for the 2018-2019 academic year are currently up on the MSU website or will be in the coming days and weeks. These range pretty drastically in the responsibilities outlined and the skillsets needed for each considering the services they are attached to, e.g., the Silhouette, CFMU, Campus Events and the Underground.
While I would encourage anyone reading this to apply if interested, I would reapply to be Editor-in-Chief myself if returning staff were allowed to during the first hiring efforts, there are a few things you need to know.
The first is that the mandated 35 hours of training before the commencement of your employment will likely be untracked and not actually reach 35 hours. While it is convenient that there is no punch card system or anything similar over the course of the regular year, it will mostly be up to you to make sure the union and its hierarchy are held responsible for training you in the job they hired you for.
This may get a bit messy on paper. Despite it not being included in the job description that training a successor will be necessary, each Editor-in-Chief has been trained by the previous one.
This will likely not be too much of a worry given the presence of supervisory and management staff for most places also running a Student Opportunity Position. It is still worth asking about in the initial interview to make sure they have a solid training process in place.
The second is that your job description is likely outdated. Mine mentions supervising 14 staff members while we have 19. It also lists the need for knowledge in PageMaker and WordPerfect despite the fact the former’s last release was in 2004 and the latter was overtaken by Microsoft Word in the late 1990s. It also references “Assistant Editors”, which is a classification that no longer exists.
While everything is roughly correct in terms of general themes, you should talk to whoever is currently in the role to get the best idea of what their job actually entails.
The third involves some oddities with the full-time employment policy. Out of those in Student Opportunity Positions that I have talked to, no one has received a formal performance review as stated in the document. The mid-year review was supposed to take place in November.
This also overlaps with the fact that all employees start off on a six-month probationary period for the supervisor to assess their suitability to the position. If successful, they become a regular employee of the MSU. I have yet to be formerly told if I am a regular employee or if I am still on that initial probation.
There are a lot of things the MSU meticulously follows when it comes to the policy, especially when it comes to anything leave or financials related, but performance feedback is not one of them for Student Opportunity Positions.
Though there are only a few positions like this available, the union’s number of full-time employees is small enough that helping a few out would go a long way in effectively using student levies. Better training, clearer job descriptions and performance feedback are all things that need improvement or more formalized systems.
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Being employed with the McMaster Students Union can not only make you a little bit of pocket money to pay for your expensive food spending on campus, but it can also benefit you in your future.
Aside from it being another work experience you can put on your resume, MSU employment allows you to discover a new part of campus in greater depth, whether it be the ins and outs of Union Market or how student-run organizations like Women Gender and Equity Network are able to operate for students.
The opportunity encourages you to get involved in the student related parts of campus that you may not have been able to discover before, and opens doors to other jobs on campus after you have already been employed on campus.
For students who are interested in campus politics or who are already involved in student politics at McMaster, the experiences you take from this opportunity are ones that can help you outside of Mac as well.
You can connect with people through your MSU position who you may not have had the confidence to connect with before. Take Chukky Ibe and his sweet selfie with Justin Trudeau for example.
Being the MSU president has likely played a role in his life and allowed for him to experience things that he may not have been able to before.
We all know the importance of making connections and networking in the working world.
A campus job can hep you do that by meeting other people on campus who may have a foot in a workplace that you may be considering for your future career.
Who knows, while you’re working at TwelvEighty one night you may get into a conversation with one of the professors you were considering as a reference for grad school.
Personally, my position has allowed me to meet with McMaster students from different backgrounds who I may not have been able to connect with otherwise and understand their different perspectives on McMaster related issues.
It also became a motivation for me to become more involved with student politics, especially now with MSU presidential elections. Before my involvement with the Silhouette, I wouldn’t have been as interested in becoming as involved as I am now.
The opportunity encourages you to get involved in the student related parts of campus that you may not have been able to discover before, and opens doors to other jobs on campus after you have been employed on campus.
Especially for first years who may feel that university life is one that seems all too independent and may feel a little lonely, finding a job on campus can help with meeting other students that most likely feel the same, while making some money to pay for those late-night study snacks in exam season.
Don’t get me wrong, it is not all exciting and fun. I’m just looking at how McMaster can benefit you. Like most part-time student jobs, yes, there is added stress, and the never-ending feeling that there is never enough time to do everything.
But at least you can go through all that with the word “McMaster” in your MSU job that you can flaunt to people. And who knows, those peoples might just be the strangers that end up funding your future post-grad future career one day.
Finding part-time employment that works around your student schedule can be difficult, so it’s worth it to make yourself aware of all the options you have for employment.
Many may not know that there are options for those of you who are not TAs but are still looking for work on campus, but there is. And it doesn’t look bad on your resume either.
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