A living wage is a complicated issue that many have been fighting for in recent years, but it faces strong opposition. In my opinion, the idea that our province can allow a single mother or father to live on a wage of $10.80 is, quite frankly, disgusting. The higher-ups in our country are the ones deciding policy and law. Yet they don’t fully understand the modern challenges and difficulties of not only finding work, but finding work that you can live on.
In “Canadians deserve a living wage,” a recent study published on canada15.com, Corey Hogan quotes Eli Khamarov, who once wrote: “Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn’t commit.” This quote highlights the inequality of poverty, and the unfairness that the poor have to deal with. The cost of government welfare and healthcare towards the poor is increasing by the day, as more and more people cannot afford to live. The cost of these services are in the billions of dollars; money the government could easily use elsewhere. The solution to spending less money on welfare and health care is simple: paying people the money they need to take care of themselves. This way less money is needed to fund these services, allowing our government to tackle other issues. As well as costing the government more money, when employees are sick and malnourished overall productivity slows down. Without being paid the amount they need to take care of themselves, employees get sick more often, and do the bare minimum at their job to make it easier on themselves. This could all be solved if the government mandated changes to hourly wages.
It is not just teenagers with summer jobs that have to deal with a small amount of money for long hours of work. People with certain circumstances who never got the chance to upgrade to a higher paying job are stuck with the minimum wage jobs that no one wants. Adults are being paid this amount of money, with bills to pay and children to feed. As a teen, I can barely pay for my textbooks and other supplies with $10 an hour. I cannot imagine the stress parents and adults have to go through with such low paying jobs. In personal experience, being paid $10.45 (now $10.80) for horrible jobs is the most unpleasant experience. Employees do not want to go above and beyond for their work if the work does not pay for itself. This is another reason why companies should push for a higher minimum wage. Being paid little means wanting to do little. No one wants to work for free, or for cheap in this case. From dealing with nasty bosses, to being screamed at by crazy mothers, $10 an hour does not make up for it. We need change.
