Raise the

minimum wage

$14 Now

Minimum Wages History –Worldwide• The first national

minimum wage law was enacted by the government of New Zealand in 1894

• Australia in 1896 • Great Britain in 1909• In the United States

statutory minimum wages were first introduced nationally in 1938

History of minimum wage in Canada

• The first provinces to enact minimum wage were British Columbia and Manitoba in 1918

• By 1920, four other provinces Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, had followed their example

• All of these laws were for the working women only• British Columbia adopted the Men’s Minimum Wage

Act in 1925• Ontario and Quebec adopted the act in 1937• Prince Edward Island was the last one

1960( Government of Canada, 2014)

What issue/issues is this movement addressing, and how?

• “Ontario's minimum wage needs to go up to $14 an hour as soon as possible”(Thomas, 2013), as the minimum wage is $11 only

• The minimum wage should be updated every year with the cost of living

• One of the important issue is to stop the wage theft by employers

• Get rid of the unfair $10,000 limit on the unpaid wages that can be claimed

• Ban recruitment fees for all migrant workers

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Who is involved• The Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage is a coalition of

several advocacy groups in Ontario(The Canadian Press, March 22, 2013)

• Members of the group include Ontario ACORN, Worker's Action Centre, and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

• Workers’ Action Centre is a worker-based organization committed to improving the lives and working conditions of people in low-wage and unstable employment

• The worker’ Action Centre members includes recent immigrants, workers of colour, women, youth and workers in precarious jobs

• The workers ’Action Centre provides a platform for people to fight for fair employment

How long they have been working on this issue?(Country, City)

Raise the minimum wage $ 14 Now

• In Ontario, the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage was launched in March 2013, by various communities.

• It demanded the Government to raise the ban on minimum wage because the minimum wage was frozen to $10.25 for four years while the cost of food, oil, clothing, housing, and other basic necessities continuous to rise. ( Workers Action Centre, 2014)

Vision of better future

• Raising the minimum wage will put more money into the hands of low income individuals and families who will then spend money putting millions into local economies and local business.

• Increasing minimum wage helps improve equality by closing the gap at the bottom of the labor market for recent immigrants, women , aboriginals, people with disabilities and racialized workers. Workers Action Centre, 2014)

Goals of Workers Action Centre:

• Organizing for fair employment

• To save the labours from the breaking of laws by the employers

• Building a movement by making the leaders among the workers

• Protecting worker’s rights who are facing problems at their workplace(APCOL, 2014)

Who is involved ?• McDonalds

• Toys “R” Us

• Tim Hortons

What factors contribute to the issue?

• Inflation has driven down minimum wage earnings 16% below the poverty line.

• It means that with current minimum wage either one can pay their rent or live without food or eat food and live homeless.

• This situation increases the frustration of the labour and touches their nerves to protest against the minimum wage.

• Another important factor is that the permanent jobs are being replaced by low-wage work.

• The fastest growing jobs in Ontario are in the service sector, where wages are the lowest.

Continue…• Another important factor is

that the minimum wage was not updated every year with the cost of living.

• There should be indexing minimum wage so that it increases each year by the cost of living and provides basic protection of living standards at the bottom of the labour market.

How do they work together?• The campaign to raise minimum wage launched in March 2013,

the campaign supporters have organized creative action on the 14th of every month, calling for minimum wage of $14

• They normally change their campaigns strategies every month• It incorporates buddy systems, partnerships that keep members

up to date, and tries to develop relationships and interpersonal support training

• Political education and workshops help members learn how to deal with issues, hone in on key messages, and develop an understanding of what changes are needed to improve wages and working conditions

• (Citation?)

Principles

• The minimum wage should bring workers and their families out of poverty.

• The minimum wage should be set 10% above the poverty line, using the Low Income Measure.

• The minimum wage should be calculated based on a 35-hour work week. Ontario’s hourly paid employees work, on average, less than 35 hours a week.

• The minimum wage should be updated every year with the cost of living.

• Ontario should join the four other provinces and territories that have already adopted this policy.

• “Ontario's minimum wage needs to go up to $14 an hour as soon as possible”(Thomas 2013) OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas

Why minimum wage is so low

• The wage policies are put forward by corporate employers and their lobby groups.

• This includes the Retail Council of Canada, which is supported by Toys ‘R’ Us

• The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, which represents Tim Horton's and McDonald’s.

• No friends in the Legislature

• NDP is non-committal.

• Conservatives would eliminate the minimum wage altogether if they could

• Liberals want to make sure the minimum wage is wrapped in cement, never rising beyond the annual inflation rate.( Rebel Youth, February 15, 2014)

What have been their successes?

• They have been able to raise the minimum wage from $10.25 to $11 on June 1, 2014

• Raise the Minimum Wage have been able to get communities of supporters across Ontario who were very quick and enthusiastic about supporting their campaign

• They have had media coverage on 680 News, CP24, and Huffington Post

• Because of the day of the action they get good meeting coverage and national CBC radio did a 90 minutes feature on the video coverage

• Toronto Star Columnist Bob Hepburn supported the call for a $14 minimum wage in his editorial(Workers Action Centre, 2014)

What could they do better?• They should get more youth

involved• It should be a campaign that

involves people outside of Ontario and Canada

• They should create awareness among all members of the society of the effects of minimum wage on people’s lives

• Should gain sympathy of all walks of life to get support

• They should get other organizations more involved

What do you think contributes to these successes?

• The large number of supporters for this campaign is a huge part of their success

• The supporters for this campaign are very interested and engaged in making change

• This campaign has used media as an outlet to get their message across

What are their tactics on a micro, mezzo, and macro level?

Tactics at Micro Level

• The Workers Action Centre operates the hot lines in six languages where people can phone to discuss their problems

• WAC workers ask callers to come to an information session• At that session WAC starts off the discussion with people

experiences at work and questions they have about their rights( Ladd,2014)

• People can give the donations for needed resources • They were campaigning in the beginning for a minimum

wage raise and approach individuals, finally got many people from the community to start campaigning

Tactics at Mezzo Level

• The main tactic used by this campaign $14Now is to use mass protest of worker and with militant politics of the street (Workers Action Centre, 2014)

• Their interactions at the mezzo level includes active participation in labor unions, trade unions, media and political groups as their tactics

• They approaches Communities across Ontario to support this campaign and demanded the government to raise the minimum wage.

• WAC works closely with labor union allies to address the roots of the problems and the weak laws that allows racism and poverty to the affect the lives of low paid workers.(WAC, 2014)

• They have large and diverse members of the community take part in petitions and rallies

Tactics Macro Level Contd.• People supporting and

signing the petition to raise the minimum wage are people like faith leaders, healthcare professionals, students, teachers, anti-poverty organizations, migrant rights groups, labour groups, and many community organizations(Workers Action Centre,2014)

• Over 50 parishes across Ontario support and demand a $14.50 minimum wage

• Health centres across the province have been supporting raising the minimum wage

• A lot of important members of the community like students, teachers, healthcare professionals, etc, are supporting and talking about raising the minimum wage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMazeh8zD9A

ReferencesCanada, S. C. (2010).. Perspectives on Labour and Income :

Minimum Wage Catalogue no. 75-001-XIE Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75- 001- x/topics-

Fong, Melissa. (2014). Spotlight on: Deena Ladd. Learning changes, V5. Retrieved from

http://www.apcol.ca/Newsletter/Spotlight/Deena_Ladd.html

Raise the minimum wage. (2014). Retrieved from http://raisetheminimumwage.ca

Thomas, W. (2014) Ontario's minimum wage needs to go up to $14 an hour as soon as possible

Retrieved from http/news/november-6-2013-opseu-joins-call-14-minimum-wage-ontario

Rebel Youth. (2014). The Liberal Social Injustice Premier and The Fight for A Livable Minimum Wage. Retrieved from http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the- liberal-social-injustice-premier.html

Reflections/Discussion Questions

• Does the increase of minimum wage would increase the unemployment or not?