80 Employers call on party leaders to take action to close wage gaps On International Equal Pay Day, a coalition of 80 small business owners, non-profit directors, and senior HR leaders are urging party leaders to use their platforms to implement policies to close pay gaps. In an open letter addressed to all party leaders, the group, which employ thousands of workers in BC, provide a series of recommendations on actions the next government should take to close the wage gap, by lifting pay and lowering costs. Continue reading

People in poverty need a road map to real solutions: The new Poverty Reduction Strategy does not provide that By Rowan Burdge, Provincial Director of the Poverty Reduction Coalition,  Anastasia French, Provincial Manager for Living Wage for Families BC Véronique Sioufi, Researcher for Racial & Socio-economic Equity, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Continue reading

Disability benefits stop workers earning a living wage Did you know disabled workers can only earn $16,200 a year before they lose access to their disability benefits? And when they lose access to their disability benefits it sometimes can mean they lose access to other entitlements such as housing. Living Wage Employers who want to do the right thing face a difficult dilemma - do they pay their disabled staff less by offering them fewer hours than their non-disabled peers or do they let their staff lose access to the support they’re entitled to? We’ve partnered with Poverty Reduction Coalition, Disability Alliance of BC and 50 other employers to sign this open letter to the Minister for Social Development and Poverty Reduction, to ask her to use the upcoming review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy to remove these restrictions and allow disabled workers to earn a Living Wage. Continue reading

1 in 3 workers in BC don't earn a Living Wage New data obtained by Living Wage for Families BC and CCPA-BC from Statistics Canada reveals large wage inequalities based on gender and race in BC’s labour market. That’s more than 740,000 people who are trapped in a gap between how much money they make and how much they need to earn to pay for rent and other essentials. Continue reading

Vote to explore a 3 year rolling average of the Living Wage Following the vote of City of Vancouver Council to not recertify as a Living Wage Employer and instead explore a 3 year rolling average of the Living Wage, Anastasia French, Provincial Manager of Living Wage for Families BC issued the following statement: Continue reading