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

We have a new Living Wage Employer!

Thurber Engineering just became a certified Living Wage Employer - committing to pay their staff and contracted workers a living wage.

A NEW LIVING WAGE EMPLOYER!

DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society just became a certified Living Wage Employer - committing to pay their staff and contracted workers a living wage.

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.

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.

NEW LIVING WAGE EMPLOYER!

Power To Be just became a certified Living Wage Employer - committing to pay their staff and contracted workers a living wage. 

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:

The Living Wage increases across BC 

As the cost of essentials continues to balloon, particularly for housing and food, Metro Vancouver's living wage has climbed to $25.68 per hour for 2023, marking an increase of 6.6 per cent from last year.

Breaking the cycle of underpaid service workers – Mobi Bikes become a Living Wage Employer!

Vancouver Bike Share (aka Mobi Bikes) has just become a certified Living Wage Employer - committing to pay their staff and contracted workers a living wage.

Support available for small businesses to pay a Living Wage

In this guest blog, Chris Lambden, owner of Gnome and Gardens Organic Landcare, shares his top tips on grants that are available to help small businesses who may be struggling to pay a Living Wage.