'Living wage' of $14/hr encouraged in Windsor

Companies in Windsor-Essex are being encouraged to take it upon themselves to start playing workers a "living wage" of about $14/hr.

"A living wage is what earners in a family need to bring home based on the actually cost of living in the community," explainedAdam Vasey of Pathway to Potential. "It allows them to provide food, shelter, clothing as well as crucial expenses such as transportation, child care and activities that will allow them to fully participate in the community."

The idea was pitched at a luncheon at the Caboto Club on Tuesday. It was organized by the Windsor-Essex Chamber of Commerce and anti-poverty agency Pathway to Potential.

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Special guest speaker Catherine Ludgate of the Vancity Credit Union in Vancouver spoke at the luncheon. She's the manager of community investment for Vancity, whose 2,500 employees are paid a living wage.

According to Ludgate, Vancouver's living wage sits at $20.10/hr in Vancouver.

For Windor-Eessex the living wage is $14.15 per hour for employers who don't provide benefits, for those who provide a comprehensive health and dental plan the wage lowers to $13.10 per hour, said Adam Vasey with Pathway to Potential.

The minimum wage in Ontario was increased from $10.25 to $11.00 last June. Vasey said that's not much for those living on minimum wage salaries.

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A standard formula is used to calculate the living wage across Canada based on a family of four with both parents working.
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Vasey has reached out to Windsor employers asking if they'd be willing to pay a living wage to their employees.

He said five companies have stepped up so far.

"Hopefully they'll be able to encourage others to get on board and to start that conversation," Vasey said. "Some [others] said it wasn't something they wanted to take part in at this time, but it wasn't a closed door."

Vancity, a living wage example

Ludgate said when Vancity looked at what their staff was earning, they found out that about 98 per cent of current employees were already paid the living wage, of $20.10 an hour.

She said there were some people in the company's call centre who were earning blow that, which led them to work with the union to bring them up to a living wage pay.

"The biggest effect was when we started to look at our contracted labour, because there were places where we didn't control directly the labour costs, [such as] janitors, security, any supplier from whom we bought services," Ludgate explained.

There are a lot of services which many businesses contract out, and that's where the vulnerable workers are, she said.

Ludgate said there are significant benefits for employers to pay a living wage including:

• Improving employee morale
• Reduces turnover, which could be a significant cost to any employer in hiring, training and retaining staff
• Employees are more productive
• Employees are happier