Living paycheque to paycheque
Low wages, precarious work make it hard for many to pay their bills
Katrina Charlton sips tea from the couch of her modest White Rock rental duplex, home from her first job and thrilled that she isn’t scheduled to work her second job later in the evening.
“Today is exciting that I only have one job. How crazy is that?” the 52-year-old laughs. “But you’ve got to find the positives. I generally go 21 days without a day off, then take a day off.”
She has worked two jobs for the last 20 years, ever since becoming a single mother to her two children.
“I stress out about money all the time,” said Charlton. “One cheque pays my ($1,100) rent, so half of my money is gone just like that, and the other cheque goes to pay the bills. ... When my kids were younger it was very, very hard, so I always had to have more money coming in from somewhere.”
Charlton’s first job, as an education assistant at a local school district, pays well at $26 per hour, but she can only get 29 hours of work each week.
At night and on weekends, she works as a server for less than minimum wage — with tips, she earns about $16 an hour.
“I’ve worked $15 an hour and I don’t think that’s livable. I would say $20 minimum for people to live a lifestyle where they are not stressed about everything,” she said. “I find when you are stressed like that you are running on the hamster wheel and all you are doing is working and surviving. You don’t have time to think about any of the other necessities in life, or how you can get out of the situation you are in.”
Anti-poverty advocates are calling on the provincial government to support sectors that will create full-time, good-paying jobs; pass laws to improve job security; and raise the minimum wage of $10.85 an hour to a so-called “living wage” (which in Metro Vancouver has been estimated at $20.64).
The majority of jobs are full-time in B.C., which leads the country with a low unemployment rate and a record number of residents working. But an analysis of the federal labour force survey shows the share of part-time jobs has steadily grown here, from 15 per cent in 1976 to nearly a quarter of all jobs in 2016.
In fact, Statistics Canada data shows, of the 72,000 new jobs created in 2016, more than half were part-time.
When asked about the recent rise of part-time work, Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said B.C.’s job-creation plan is a “long-term strategy” — and argued the vast majority of the 200,000 jobs created over the last six years are full-time.
“We recognize that there is always more that can be done,” Bond said, but added her government’s focus is to “grow the economy and create better, well-paying jobs for as many people as possible.”
The government’s jobs plan, she added, has propelled the province to lead the country in employment growth. “We recognize that some people are struggling, but our plan is delivering results and we’re going to continue on with that plan so we build opportunities for British Columbians.”
Bond said there is a declining number of people making minimum wage, and that half of them are students living with their parents. She also said the average wage being paid in B.C. right now is $25 an hour for adults.
NDP Leader John Horgan claims that since the recent recession, most of the jobs created have been temporary, low-paying jobs and part-time jobs.
“In Metro Vancouver, which is driving the low overall numbers in terms of unemployment, that belies the issues that are happening in rural British Columbia, where resource communities are struggling because of the downturn in commodity prices, but also by the closure of forest operations,” Horgan said.
But even the reality in big cities is not so rosy.
“Metro Vancouver’s booming economy relies on a large group of low-paid workers to provide security, catering, cleaning, administration and other services,” says a 2016 working poverty report by Iglika Ivanova of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Ivanova’s report also found the majority of people in B.C. living in poverty are not on welfare — of the 14 per cent of British Columbians who live in poverty, just four per cent receive social assistance. Nearly one in 10 people living in Metro Vancouver is “working poor.”
The NDP has said it would boost the minimum wage to $15 if elected. The Liberals are raising it to $11.35 in September.
B.C. business groups say that being forced to suddenly pay much higher wages would harm small companies, lead to lost jobs and cuts in hours for employees.
“For B.C. businesses that employ low-wage employees, moving quickly to a $15-per-hour minimum wage would amount to at least a 40 per cent increase in labour costs, likely creating a shock to the labour market and causing many smaller firms to scale back their demand for entry-level workers in particular,” said Jock Finlayson, executive vice-president and chief policy officer at the Business Council of B.C.
More than half of B.C. workers, though, say they live paycheque to paycheque, and feel overwhelmed by debt, a Canadian Payroll Association Survey found last September.
That is true of Charlton, who has not been able to save for her retirement. “I really worry what will happen to me if I can’t work my second job, because I have nothing to live off,” she said.
The modest White Rock duplex she rents is near where she works and close to her three young grandchildren, who she helps to look after. But the property is now for sale, leaving her worried about finding another affordable place in the area to rent.
“A lot of people my age have to go back to sharing like when they were kids,” she said. “I’ve had roommates to get me through the summer (when she doesn’t get paid for her education job) and it’s not ideal. But it would be a way to get by, if you had to.”
Charlton is not a complainer, and is grateful for the good things in her life. But she believes the government should put more priority on affordable rental housing and on increasing wages.
“I have a good life here, but I’ve worked very, very, very hard,” she added. “I think B.C. is a very tough place to make it.”
Job security is another concern. Jennifer Whiteside, business manager for the Hospital Employees Union, said employees such as care aides can be fired and replaced by lower-wage workers.
At one home on the Sunshine Coast, workers were earning $21.54 an hour when their contract was flipped in 2014. Today, those jobs have been contracted out for $17.50 an hour.
Sam Lindsay, 47, was one of the care aides at that home. She had been there for six years, working closely every day with seniors doing everything from helping them bathe to putting on their shoes to making sure they were wearing their glasses or their lipstick.
“You’re making a choice. In order to keep your job and work with these amazing people and care for people that you love so much, you’ re going to roll my income back ,” Lindsay said .“We were heartbroken.”
Low wages and precarious jobs are a serious problem, said Irene
Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.
Data from the Canadian Labour Congress shows the majority of workers who earn less than $15 an hour work full-time and are mostly between the ages of 25 and 54.
“There are many, many people working for less than $15 an hour — single moms, single dads working more than one job trying to support a family,” Lanzinger said. “It is not just kids living in their parents’ basements.”