Inequality and poverty

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Please note: The updated 2019 Living Wage report is now available.
The working group on poverty reduction appointed by the provincial government last December released its draft report recently and immediately invoked the ire of activists by insisting on waiting for a year to actually take action to reduce poverty. In an article in the Herald on July 1, Co-chair of Community Action on Homelessness, Wayne McNaughton pointedly asked why this was the case and why the government was not ready with costed-out proposals for responding to the report. Why indeed?
Inside this issue: Harvest of Shame: Cultivating Farmworker Rights Living on Welfare Denying Income Inequality Won’t Make It Go Away Perspectives on BC’s Carbon Tax Selling Out the Public Interest on Vancouver Island Forestlands
Many experts are puzzling over a paradox in BC’s economy — why have years of solid growth and low unemployment failed to translate into improved earnings for those in lower end jobs? One piece of the puzzle can be found in the growth in casual work. “Casual” means you have a job but no job security — working without a contract or with one that lasts a very short time (whereas people with permanent jobs expect ongoing employment, barring unforeseen circumstances like layoffs).
The recent steep pay hikes for BC’s senior bureaucrats triggered quite a controversy. Handing out raises in the 20 to 43% range at the top end does seem a bit rich coming from a government that refuses to increase the minimum wage even by a few cents.
VANCOUVER — Despite solid economic growth and low unemployment rates, BC is home to a growing number of casual workers who struggle to achieve economic security, according to a new study by two University of Northern BC professors.
Labour and social justice groups in BC have long urged the provincial government to increase the minimum wage to a level that guarantees a path out of poverty for a single person working full-year, full-time. Year after year, the government has turned them down with the argument that BC already enjoys the highest minimum wage in Canada and raising it further would be uncompetitive.