Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » Ottawa http://chieforganizer.org Author of Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:36:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Living Wages from Boston to Canada http://chieforganizer.org/2009/12/03/living-wages-from-boston-to-canada/ http://chieforganizer.org/2009/12/03/living-wages-from-boston-to-canada/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:47:49 +0000 dine http://chieforganizer.org/?p=2521

Boston Talking to organizers the last night about security workers being subcontracted, one casually mentioned what could and could not be done because of the Boston Living Wage ordinance.  At Boston University with Professor Lee Staples as we made the case and claims for the power of community organizing it was natural to once again [...]]]> Ottawa City Hall

Boston Talking to organizers the last night about security workers being subcontracted, one casually mentioned what could and could not be done because of the Boston Living Wage ordinance.  At Boston University with Professor Lee Staples as we made the case and claims for the power of community organizing it was natural to once again reference the impact of the more than great living wage ordinance ACORN and labor allies had won in Boston what seems like yesterday, but probably more than 10 years ago now.

In living wage fights in the US the issue is often framed around what the impact on jobs and employers will be.  In talking about citizen wealth in these fights we often had to defend against whether or not living wages were an appropriate anti-poverty method, rather than being able to assume that everyone shared a value that work should be paid fairly to the laborer.

I couldn’t help thinking as we parsed this again at BU about the very different way that ACORN Canada is dealing with living wage matters in New Westminster (outside of Vancouver) that just voted to research the matter this week or in Ottawa where a critical vote is happening today, 12/3/09.  In Ottawa the framing is overtly about citizen wealth and, importantly, poverty reduction, and in taking the issue head on in a report being released today called “Poverty is Not Cheap” (www.acorncanada.org), ACORN Canada doesn’t mince words or dollars.  Using figures and methodology from recent reports by the Ontario Association of Food Banks, they were able to calculate that the cost of poverty to every household in the province was a staggering $2300!

Bringing the figure home in Ottawa the report calculated the cost just to the city budget of allowing poverty to exist and encouraging its health by not paying living wages:

What does Ottawa pay towards social programs?

Employment and Financial Assistance Ontario Works Financial Assistance $148,834,000
ODSP $42,396,000
Housing Public Housing $23,774,000
Rent supplement Programs $19,871,000
Homeless Support Services $6,667,000
National Homelessness Initiatives $7,197,000
Affordable Housing $267,000
Child Care Services Ontario Works $4,411,000
Best Start $10,955,000
City of Ottawa – Adopted Operating Expenditures for 2009 and Variance from 2008.  http://www.ottawa.ca/city_hall/budget/budget_2009/images/cps_en.pdf, at pp. 4 and 5.

Ottawa’s price tag: $264,372,000

Add to all of this some additional figures that indicated why a living wage should be between $12 and $13 per hour, and when one lay the report back down, it seemed like the leaders of Ottawa would be making a serious financial mistake by not paying all subcontracted workers a living wage!

It’s worth watching this vote closely for what could be history in the making in Canada, just as the living wage ordinance made huge change and critical history in Boston.

]]> http://chieforganizer.org/2009/12/03/living-wages-from-boston-to-canada/feed/ 0 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.

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