MEDIA RELEASE: Minimum wage increase welcome, but workers need more.
April 1, 2023
St. John’s, NL - The Workers’ Action Network of Newfoundland and Labrador (hereafter “Workers’ Action Network”) acknowledges that while any increase to the minimum wage improves the lives of workers, today’s minimum wage increase to $14.50 an hour will still leave workers struggling to make ends meet.
“The fight for a $15 minimum wage in the province really kicked off in 2018 with the $15 and Fairness Campaign, and workers fought hard to see these increases. But we’re living in a very different economy in 2023. Even $15 an hour will come nowhere close to affording workers the ability to make ends meet,” said Virtual Organizer Sara Moriarity.
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in 2019, a person working a full time, full year job in St. John’s would have needed to be paid at least $18.85 an hour in order to earn a living wage. The Workers’ Action Network estimates that a living wage for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians today is at least $20 an hour.
According to the Newfoundland & Labrador Statistics Agency, 68,100 workers in this province earned less than $20 an hour in 2022, and 15,000 workers earned less than $15 an hour.
While the impacts of a low minimum wage are felt by all low wage workers in the province, most impacted are migrants, women, and children. Women constitute the majority of minimum wage earners in Newfoundland and Labrador, which directly contributes to Newfoundland and Labrador having one of the highest gender wage gaps in the country. Women in this province earn sixty six cents to every dollar men earn. According to the St. John’s Status of Women Council, this gap is even wider for Indigenous, racialized, and migrant women in the province.
“The minimum wage rate must keep up with the cost of living,” said Moriarity. “With the costs of basic necessities skyrocketing, workers in low-wage jobs will continue to struggle with a minimum wage of just $14.50 an hour.”
According to the University of Toronto, 90,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians lived in households that struggled with food insecurity in 2021. Shockingly, almost half of all households who experienced food insecurity in the province relied on employment income as their primary source of income.
“It’s unacceptable that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are experiencing such astonishing rates of housing and food insecurity while corporations like Loblaws report record profits. This clearly exposes an unwillingness from all levels of government to protect the basic needs of workers and their families over the profitability of the private sector.” said Moriarity.
In light of the current cost-of-living crisis, the Workers Action Network calls on the provincial government to set a pathway to a minimum wage of $20 an hour as quickly as possible.
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Media Contact
Sara Moriarity
Virtual Organizer
contact@workersactionnl.ca
(709) 771-0024