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Hamilton’s living wage now $15.85 an hour
During an announcement at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board’s office on the mountain, the Living Wage Working Group unveiled the updated calculation at $15.85 per hour more than Ontario’s current minimum wage of $11.40 per hour.
More than 100 employers in Ontario have adopted a living wage policy to assist the province’s 1.8 million working poor.
Hamilton’s revised living wage is on the lower scale of what 14 other Ontario municipalities have adopted over the years such as the Niagara Region at $17.47, Peterborough with $17.65, Toronto with $18.52 – the highest – and Halton Region at $17.05.
There are nearly 30,000 adults in Hamilton working full or part-time jobs but don’t earn enough to pay their bills each month, says Deirdre Pike, a social planner at the Social Planning and Research Council.
Read the full story at http://www.hamiltonnews.com/
Updated living wage calculation announced for Kingston
$16.58
Announcing the 2017 living wage rate in Waterloo region
Living Wage Waterloo Region calculation is based on the National Living Wage framework using a reference household of a family of four with two parents each working full-time, full-year. This new calculation reflects a decrease of 63 cents from the 2016 amount of $16.05. Over the past year there has been an increase in household expenses mainly due to a rise in child care costs. However, this increase was offset by the expansion of the Canada Child Benefit implemented by the federal government in 2016.
Encouraging St. Thomas and Elgin employers to buy into a living wage
Families shouldn't be scraping by with the bare minimum ... wage – at least if you ask the YWCA of St. Thomas-Elgin.
From Oct. 30 to Nov. 6, communities coast to coast will be marking National Living Wage Week – and once again the local agency is getting on board.
“We're hoping the community is getting a good understanding and that 'living wage' is becoming common language,” said Lindsay Rice, director of community programming at the YWCA.
“We want folks to really understand the difference between minimum wage and a living wage.”
Embracing the living wage
More than a blue-sky concept in Guelph, the practice of a living wage has been embraced by a number of local employers over the past year, including a national firm based here.
Next Tuesday, as part of Living Wage Week, those Guelph and Wellington “Living Wage Employers” will be recognized for their commitment to pay a living wage.
The Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination started the recognition program one year ago.
In this area, that living wage has been determined to be $16.50 per hour, the conservative estimate calculated by the Poverty Task Force with the support of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Living wage employer Cake & Loaf, winners of this year’s Small Business Challenge contest
Josie Rudderham and Nicole Miller have big dreams for the small business they started five years ago in a house in Hamilton, Ont.
The owners of Cake & Loaf Bakery Ltd. – a million-dollar business that bakes goods from scratch using local ingredients – want to expand their main location to include eat-in and meeting spaces for baking classes and community events. They also want to build a customer relationship management program that can help them maintain the personal touch that’s become a key part of their brand.
It’ll take a lot of cash – at least $150,000 for the space expansion alone – to turn this wish list into reality. But there’s no stopping Ms. Rudderham and Ms. Miller now; the business partners and former college classmates have won this year’s Small Business Challenge contest, sponsored by The Globe and Mail and Telus Corp., beating out more than 3,300 entries.