Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » living wages http://chieforganizer.org Author of Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:04:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Living Wages on Average Hours http://chieforganizer.org/2009/05/09/living-wages-on-average-hours/ http://chieforganizer.org/2009/05/09/living-wages-on-average-hours/#comments Sat, 09 May 2009 19:00:04 +0000 jstuart http://chieforganizer.org/wp/?p=1298 As ACORN Canada prepares to introduce its initiative to create the first municipal living wage bylaw (or ordinance) in Canada in mid-May, the behind the scenes debate with city councilors is intensely focusing the politics and economics on the “right” hourly rate as usual, but also on the important question of average hours. The [...]]]> As ACORN Canada prepares to introduce its initiative to create the first municipal living wage bylaw (or ordinance) in Canada in mid-May, the behind the scenes debate with city councilors is intensely focusing the politics and economics on the “right” hourly rate as usual, but also on the important question of average hours. The rate will be somewhere between $10 and $15 CN depending on a lot of factors as well as the municipal economics of Ottawa, but ACORN Canada has raised in the backroom debates with its allies the critical question of whether the rate should be pegged to part-time, full-time, or average hours worked.

The organization, Canada Without Poverty (formerly Canadian Anti-Poverty Organization), had issued a number of statistics over the years and one that receives particular attention by ACORN Canada in its “white paper” supporting the Ottawa living wage campaign is the fact that CWP has calculated that the average Canadian only works 30.8 hours a week. Looking at the public policy impact, ACORN Canada has raised the issue, behind the scenes thus far in trial balloons on the campaign, that they believe there is an important and breakthrough case to be made for setting the minimum living wage for municipal contractors at the wage necessary for Ottawa citizen/workers to live and work in Ottawa even if they only make the average hours.

The difference in the living wage figure depending on the calculation of hours could move the number from the low end of what is needed at $10 something to the higher end of the range, closer to $15.00 hour. This will be an interesting debate no matter what decision ACORN Canada makes because the impact and policy implications are significant even if politics ends up winning the day on the number again.



]]> http://chieforganizer.org/2009/05/09/living-wages-on-average-hours/feed/ 0 Wages of Work and Welfare http://chieforganizer.org/2009/04/27/wages-of-work-and-welfare/ http://chieforganizer.org/2009/04/27/wages-of-work-and-welfare/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:46:30 +0000 wade http://chieforganizer.org/wp/?p=1256 New Orleans Newspapers over the weekend from London to Washington and New York are full of stories about the increasing wages of the top dogs in the financial industries on Wall Street and the City of London.  The estimates range from 10% to 25% hikes.  Meanwhile we continue to struggle to figure out the most [...]]]> New Orleans Newspapers over the weekend from London to Washington and New York are full of stories about the increasing wages of the top dogs in the financial industries on Wall Street and the City of London.  The estimates range from 10% to 25% hikes.  Meanwhile we continue to struggle to figure out the most accurate and pragmatic rates for the minimum wages for workers in New Westminster, British Columbia, and Ottawa, Ontario.  Where’s the justice here?
The bankers and their running buddies are merely trying to get around the new (and worrisomely, perhaps, temporary curtailments of bonuses), so are jacking up their pay envelopes within mere days and months after some of them were hang dogging around Washington and elsewhere, as if they had learned something from all of the greed and excess of the last several decades.  A friend overheard, King Milling, a top officer and director of Whitney National Bank here in New Orleans, talking in a social setting about returning the TARP money, because there was no way he was going to be able to live on “only $500,000 a year.”  Laugh, laugh.  How quickly they try sneaking around and rewarding themselves at what is now often the public trough.
Such stories cast a cloud over conversations we are having across Canada and the USA with our allies and researcher friends about how to set the fairest living wage standard in major communities in Canada where these campaigns have not been as ubiquitous as the states.  Should the wage be for an individual or be “family-based,” including childcare and other costs?  Is $15 CN per hour the right wage in Ottawa?  How much higher or lower in BC?
At ACORN International we sweat the loonies between $30K and $35K per year, while we read about our pockets being picked by folks who are driving the ships into the icebergs without a clue.  Our friend at Whitney was having his chuckles within days of last week’s announcement that the bank lost over $11M during the first quarter.
Justice is coming!
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