Globe & Mail: Living wage won’t fix Vancouver’s income inequality but it’s a start

[inanna]

Published Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2015 7:51PM EDT

It’s difficult to find fault with the sentiment underlying Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s plans to make his government a “living wage” employer.

Income inequality is one of the dominant and persistently troubling issues of our times. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow at precipitous rates. In a province as wealthy as British Columbia, and in a city as costly as Vancouver, the number of people living at or below the poverty line is inexcusable. Once upon a time, the notion that people wouldn’t be paid enough to maintain an adequate standard of living was inconceivable.

“No business which depends for existence on paying less than a living wage to its workers has any right to continue in this country,” U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt said in 1933. How things have changed.

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In B.C., the Living Wage Campaign has spearheaded efforts to get a small but growing list of employers to join the movement, including Vancity credit union, the Canadian Cancer Society and the city of New Westminster. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the current living wage in Metro Vancouver is $20.68 an hour, a rate that will undoubtedly be higher when the City of Vancouver, if all goes according to plan, institutes its new policy in two or three years’ time.

cont'd...

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/living-wage-wont-fix-vancouvers-income-inequality-but-its-a-start/article25212874/?cmpid=rss1

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. So say property owners

who enjoy soaring real estate values, as well as the world class urban amenities provided by minimum wage earners, and don't want their property taxes going up. The people earning minimum wage or less are not a part of that vocal class.