Share Of Workers In Minimum Wage Jobs Has Grown Fivefold In Ontario: Study (Huffington Post)

[inanna]

Posted: 06/15/2015 2:46 pm EDT

In 1997, one in 40 Ontario workers was working for minimum wage. Today, it's one out of every eight.

That's according to a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which found low-wage jobs in Canada’s largest province have been growing at a pace that is more than three times as fast as overall job growth since 1997.

The study from the left-leaning institute, based on Statistics Canada data, paints a picture of a central Canadian economy that is rapidly losing higher-wage, unionized manufacturing jobs in favour of lower-wage, non-union service jobs. The result of this shift has been a rise in “precarious” employment such as contract work, temp work and part-time hours.

While the total number of jobs in Ontario grew by 30 per cent over the past 17 years, the number of low-wage jobs (defined as paying an hourly rate within four dollars of the minimum wage) grew by 94 per cent, the study found.

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The report aims to dispel the “myth” that minimum-wage workers are mostly teenagers living at home and saving up for the latest smartphone.

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Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/06/15/ontario-wages-earnings-ccpa_n_7587844.html

[inanna]

1. More from The Hamilton Spectator:

A dime a dozen: Ontario’s ‘eye-popping’ shift to low-wage work

Labour laws leave 40 per cent of low-wage workers saddled with unpredictable shifts, no paid sick days

It's one of the most excruciating decisions single mom Jodi Dean has ever made: choosing between the unpredictable, $13-an-hour job her family relied on, and taking care of her chronically ill daughter.

"It (made) me physically ill with the stress," Dean said. "I needed that job to provide for my children."

Welcome to the new normal for families across the province: low salaries, erratic schedules, dwindling hours, unpaid leave and constant stress.

Ontario's low-wage work force has skyrocketed by 94 percent over the past two decades, compared with just 30 percent growth in total employment, according to a new report.

In one of the few province-wide studies of precarious employment, the research details an "eye-popping" shift toward poorly paid, non-unionized work across Ontario.

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Link: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5677195-a-dime-a-dozen-ontario-s-eye-popping-shift-to-low-wage-work/