Living wage employer list grows
It’s an investment, just like any other investment a business or organization makes.
Women’s Place of South Niagara executive director Ruthann Brown compared offering employees “a living wage” to buying the latest computer equipment and software to ensure a business is as productive and efficient as possible.
“Businesses need to reflect, in the context of retaining qualified staff, in the context of the knowledge transfer when you lose staff, and in the context of providing the best services for people, we have to look at human resources as an investment in the work that we do,” Brown said.
Niagara Poverty Reduction Network announced Wednesday that both Women’s Place and Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre are the region’s two newest employers to be registered as “certified living wage employers,” for paying wages of at least $ 17.57 an hour — the amount of income currently needed to cover the cost of living in the region.
They join Pre- Line Processing in Lincoln — Niagara’s first business to obtain the certification in June.
The announcement was made days before National Living Wage Week across Canada, taking place Nov. 5 to 11.
Poverty Reduction Network chairman Glen Walker described a living wage as the amount of income the wage- earner of a family needs, based on the actual costs of living in a specific community.
And the planned Ontario minimum wage increases to $ 14 an hour in January, and $ 15 an hour a year later, won’t be enough to truly lift the lowest income earners out of poverty.
“We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to bite the bullet, because it’s not a huge amount of money,” Walker said. “People tend to get very emotional, and say it’s going to cost so much money. But I think at the end of the day, it really comes down to what’s the actual impact. How many people are affected and how can we dramatically improve their lives by making this modest change?”
For Women’s Place, obtaining the certification was easy to accomplish.
The lowest paid workers there get about $ 21 to $ 22 an hour, and the organization has likely been paying wages well above the threshold since before the living wage was being calculated in Niagara, Brown said.
“The thing is, we’re advocates for women who are fleeing domestic violence, and it’s not a hard decision because we must walk the talk. How can we be seen as empowering women in our community that come to us for refuge if we don’t empower our own employees who are women?” she asked.
Niagara Folks Arts Multicultural Centre executive director Jeff Burch said his organization also hopes to “set an example and encourage other employers to pay a living wage.”
“We value our staff,” Burch said. “Paying a living wage helps to reduce staff turn- over and encourages loyalty and dedication to jobs that are often difficult and demanding.”
Walker said organizations such as Women’s Place and the Multicultural Centre still face budget pressures, despite receiving upper- tier government funding.
Many government- funded programs, he added, “have had base funding freezes for almost seven years.”
“We’re not flush with cash or anything,” he said, adding many organizations rely on fundraising initiatives to keep programs running.
Despite the budgetary limits, Brown said the extra investment pays off for the employer, the employees and the community as a whole.
People living in poverty are often forced to make choices with the scarce dollars they have, she said. Those choices are often decisions about whether to pay their rent or feeding their children.
The challenges they face, however, often go unnoticed.
“Back in the Depression years, we saw the bread lines and we saw the soup lines,” Brown said. “We don’t see that anymore. Hunger and poverty are hidden. If we actually saw that on our street, we would wake up. But we don’t.”