‘I think something has to be done’
Mother’s struggles mean children feel the pain too
Nicole Mason has worked in the service sector for most of her life. The 45-year-old mother of two has sold clothes and wine as a retail clerk, cared for the sick and elderly as a personal support worker and coowned a restaurant.
But when her 13-year marriage collapsed five years ago, Mason and her two daughters, then 12 and 9, were forced to start from scratch. It has been a struggle ever since.
Her eldest daughter is still upset that she had to give up competitive dancing at a cost of $10,000 a year, Mason says wistfully. Now 17, that daughter just moved out of their Flemingdon Park apartment to live with her father in the Niagara Region. And who can blame her, Mason says.
Although she has a permanent, fulltime job in a wine store, Mason’s $14-an-hour wage can’t pay for the brand-name clothes teenagers covet. Internet service and cable TV aren’t in the budget, either.
Her daughter has to use computers at the library or at a friend’s house when she has homework, she says.
“It really sucks for my 14-year-old because when I am working nights she is stuck at home watching reruns of Desperate Housewives on old DVDs.”
But Mason is determined to make a better life. She is hoping her current management training job in Wood- bridge will lead to a supervisory position within the chain of wine stores and a possible pay increase of as much as $4 an hour. If she can work her way up to store manager, she figures she could be earning as much as $40,000 and transfer to a Toronto outlet closer to home.
Mason admits she struggles to justify $800 in monthly car expenses, including gas and insurance payments. But it means she doesn’t have to spend four hours a day on buses and pay both TTC and York public transit fares.
Until she is promoted, however, her car and $975 monthly rent will continue to eat up most of her earnings.
If it wasn’t for about $300 in monthly child support from her ex- husband and federal child benefit payments of about $350 a month, she wouldn’t have money for food and other necessities.
A Toronto living wage of $18.52 an hour would make a huge difference in her life, Mason says.
“I work hard and I still can’t make enough, so I think something has to be done.”