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BC’s Minimum Wage Hikes Address Working Poverty

Posted by Jill Zacharias on September 12, 2023

Minimum wage increase tied to inflation, significantly impacting working poor. 

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Living Wage Week 2022 and Our Current Call to Action

Posted by Danya Pastuszek on November 18, 2022

On Wednesday evenings, while my seven-year-old plays basketball, I frequently have warm conversations with a school maintenance professional. She works with intention, and you can tell she believes that the kids in her building are full of promise and potential. She air-fives the coaches. She has taken time to learn about me and to share her perspective on what resources are needed to support young people.

She looks after a school at 6 o’clock at night, instead of eating dinner with the people she loves.

She likely makes around $39,000 CAD per year, which translates to $18.75 an hour.

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Living in a Livable Economy: The Impacts of Al

Posted by Mark Holmgren on May 14, 2019
Last November I published a blog on the   Edmonton CDC website   and more recently repeated that posting here on Anticipate.   Reading it first is, I suggest, of value to fully engage this posting.

The title of this posting reflects my interest in getting language “right.”

Living Wage and Livable Income are not synonymous. The latter includes the former and ensures we are considering those who do not earn wages and rely on pensions and/or government income security programs.  A livable economy is one that benefits society as a whole, not just those at the top of the income scale.

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Living Wage In a Livable Economy

Posted by Mark Holmgren on November 16, 2018

In Edmonton, approximately 140,000 workers are identified as low income earners (earning below $16.31 per hour), according to the Edmonton Social Planning Council. Four in five of these workers are over the age of 20 and 60% are women.

The Canadian Payroll Association’s annual survey of Canadian workers identifies that in any given year 45% to 50% of workers across our nation are living pay check to pay check and would face significant hardships, including the loss of their residence, if they went without their pay check for one or two pay periods.

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Living Wage and the Cities Reducing Poverty National Summit

Posted by Chatham-Kent Prosperity Roundtable on April 27, 2017

In early April I had the pleasure of presenting on a Living Wage panel at Tamarack’s Cities Reducing Poverty Summit hosted this year in Hamilton, Ontario.

The Prosperity Roundtable from Chatham-Kent, Ontario was participating to talk about the unique challenges that may be experienced in rural communities when engaging in Living Wage conversations.  Framing the conversation in a way that leads to successful outcomes was incredibly important for our organizing committee; in our community that meant using our local Living Wage number as an opportunity to dialogue about the important policy considerations that can be used to help build a more prosperous community.  

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Sharing Successes from Yukon (Whitehorse)

Posted by the Tamarack Institute on July 21, 2016
This year the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition celebrates the 20th Anniversary of their poverty reduction work in the Yukon territory and in Whitehorse specifically. They've undergone much development and evolution as a group over the years, dependent on the current need and passion expressed by the community. They actively listen to residents, and have taken on the role as a spawning ground for other organizations and projects to take hold (ex. the downtown urban garden society, and the local Habitat for Humanity chapter).

Here, with Bill Thomas, Co-Chair of the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC), we take a look at how their values and priorities are bringing local youth to the coalition's advocacy, awareness, and action priorities to reduce poverty and create stronger leaders.
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