Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program is failing to support low-wage and precariously-employed workers, who have considerably less access to benefits than workers with higher wages.
Among the study’s findings:
While 42 per cent of all unemployed workers qualified for EI in 2017, just 28 per cent of workers earning $15 or less per hour were eligible for benefits;
Inequality and poverty
TORONTO—Le programme de l’assurance-emploi (A-E) du Canada échoue à soutenir les travailleurs à faible revenu et occupant un emploi précaire; ceux-ci ont considérablement moins accès aux prestations que les travailleurs à plus haut revenu, selon un nouveau rapport du Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA).
TORONTO—Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program is failing to support low-wage and precariously-employed workers, who have considerably less access to benefits than workers with higher wages, according to a new Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) report.
Photo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Canada is addicted to oil. Like all addictions, ours is debilitating. It has erased the line between state and private industry (thin as that line is in most countries), stifles our politics, and is holding back local, provincial and national preparations for a world without fossil fuels. Curing our addiction to oil and gas will take time and money, and historic levels of Indigenous–federal–provincial co-operation. But it absolutely has to happen—starting now.
In this issue:
On May 1, the Living Wage for Families Campaign released new living wage rates for 12 BC communities. Even though costs are increasing steeply for rent and other basic necessities, the cost of living for families with children is lower this year thanks to the provincial government’s new child care policies.
This report provides an up-to-date calculation of a living wage for workers living in St. John's. The report finds that in order to earn a living wage, a person working a full time, full year job in St. John’s would need to be paid $18.85 an hour. Currently, almost 70,000 workers in Newfoundland and Labrador earn less than $15 dollars an hour, the majority of which are women. For a minimum wage worker to earn the equivalent of a living wage in St. John’s, that individual would have to work at least 58 hours a week.
(HALIFAX, NS/ST.JOHN’S, NL)—In order to earn a living wage, a person working a full time, full year job in St. John’s would need to be paid $18.85 an hour, according to a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ office based in Nova Scotia.
For those seeking to calculate the living wage in other BC and Canadian communities, you can download the living wage calculation guide and spreadsheet (below). And please let the Living Wage Campaign know what you come up with — they're working on keeping track of amounts across the province and across Canada: [email protected].
You can also contact the campaign if you want to become a living wage employer or to participate in the work of the campaign.