Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press April 8, 2022
Employment and labour
This report looks at real wage growth and rising inflation over the past two years.
The study finds that wages for a majority of Canadian workers has not increased at the same rate as inflation. In particular, many public sector workers who have faced salary freezes from provincial governments are falling behind.
Other sectors, such as information, culture and recreation, saw wage growth above inflation levels as many workers moved toward working from home.
OTTAWA—Nearly two-thirds of Canadian workers’ wages are falling behind rising inflation, leaving them increasingly in a pressure cooker situation, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The report, Pressure Cooker: Declining real wages and rising inflation in Canada during the pandemic, 2020-2022, examines wages across all industries and finds 64 per cent of Canadian workers have experienced real wage losses over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation.
Ce rapport décrit la composition de la population active au salaire minimum et explique en quoi la hausse du salaire minimum dans l'Ontario en 2018 a affecté l’écart salarial racial des hommes et des femmes qui travaillent. Lorsque le salaire minimum de 14 $ l'heure a été introduit, les lobbyistes du monde des affaires ont fait de sombres prédictions. En fait, la hausse des salaires en Ontario a été loin d’être une « tueuse d’emplois » : l’emploi total a affiché une croissance de 1,7 % en 2018 et de 2,8 % en 2019.
This report examines the impact of increasing Ontario's minimum wage to $14 per hour in 2018.
Despite dire predictions that increasing minimum wage would eliminate jobs, employment actually increased in the period after the change.
The study, funded by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), also found racialized workers, especially women, benefitted from the minmum wage increase, largely due to the gendered and racialized nature of low-wage work.
Employment in almost all industries with lower-than-average wages increased.
TORONTO— La décision de l'Ontario en 2018 d'augmenter le salaire minimum a permis de réduire l'écart salarial racialisé, en particulier pour les femmes, parallèlement à une croissance de l'emploi, selon une nouvelle étude du Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA).
TORONTO—Ontario’s move in 2018 to raise the minimum wage reduced the racialized wage gap, particularly for women, amid rising employment, according to a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
When the $14-per-hour minimum wage was implemented in 2018, business lobbyists made dire predictions that it would lead to massive job losses. That simply didn’t happen. In fact, far from being a “job-killer,” wages grew in Ontario while total employment increased by 1.7 per cent in 2018 and by 2.8 per cent in 2019, according to the new report.
This report examines the racial and gender lines in Canada's labour market during the most challenging period of the COVID-19 pandemic to date.
Racialized and Indigenous workers were more likely to become unemployed and be in jobs that put them in close proximity to others, increasing their risk of COVID-19 infection. Racialized and Indigenous workers were also more likely to live with economic insecurity compared to white workers. Female workers were at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Ce rapport analyse les répercussions de la pandémie sur le marché du travail au Canada, en comparant la situation des travailleurs autochtones et racialisés à celle des travailleurs blancs et non autochtones.
TORONTO—Selon un nouveau rapport du Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA), les travailleurs autochtones et racialisés ont été plus nombreux, tout au long de la pandémie, à occuper des emplois les mettant en contact étroit avec d’autres personnes, ce qui a augmenté leur risque d’infection par la COVID-19.