Minimum wage freeze debate heats up
Re PC freeze on minimum wage Minimum wage workers have forever been warned that things could be a lot worse . . . no job at all. These vulnerable people just do not seem to realize the maximum devastation that will emanate from seeking a better minimum wage. Thankfully, the Ontario government is here to save them from themselves.
This must continue to be comforting news to Canada’s 100 top CEOs, who average over $9 million a year in income and have lifetime pension benefits averaging over $1.3 million a year. No doubt our CEOs deserve no less, and minimum wage earners deserve no more. The people thank you, Mr. Ford. Bob Sutton, Camlachie, Ont. Pathetic!
The minimum wage in Ontario should be raised above $14 and more benefits, not fewer, should be accorded to workers in this province. With such a negligible — given the high cost of living — current minimum wage and few benefits, why would any worker stay in Ontario and not immigrate — or apply for asylum — abroad, what with the value of the Canadian peso being what it is and the low wages unskilled workers (and those skilled and highly educated forced to work in the service industry) are being paid in this province and the few benefits and holidays they receive in turn for their hard labour?
At $14 per hour, a currency so devalued as to make the current minimum wage be only worth circa 8 euros and $10 (U.S.) in equivalency, an unskilled, minimum wage worker in Ontario, should he/she be prepared to immigrate — or seek refugee status — out of the country and province, could get more in hourly wages in 10 U.S. states, many just across the border, and quite a few western European countries, let alone what he/she could earn in Norway, Sweden and Finland, where the minimum wage, if converted to CAD, would be worth in the $22$27 per hour with copious benefits, paid leaves and lengthy holidays thrown in and where the quality of life and living standards and life expectancy is far higher than the one in Canada. Where all these standards are dropping in tune with the erosion of the middle class, as this class of citizenry in this country and province is quickly driven to extinction by stagnantly low wages and high and ever increasing debt on debt.
The cost of living, especially in essentials such as accommodation and food, is so high, that few in Ontario these days could survive solely on their incomes, let alone minimum wage ones.
The existing state of affairs for minimum wage workers in Ontario is too feudalistic and medieval in its treatment to be allowed to be sustained and enabled repeatedly at the ballot box. Best to look at one’s paycheque and what that puts on the table and what that vote delivered and start thinking out of the box! Mario Godlewski, Toronto