The Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination has released a new report about the working poor in the region.
“As low-wage precarious employment increases our understanding of the impacts of working poverty are also on the rise, thanks to a growing body of research,” said Randalin Ellery, task force coordinator.
“We know that working poverty impacts household wellbeing, which is things like people finding it difficult to make ends meet or to afford food every month; unpredictable schedules make it difficult to find time to spend with friends and family.”
The new report, released on Dec. 8 at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health office in Guelph, focuses on working poor at a local level.
Ellery explained working poor involves individuals that earn below “median low income” after-tax. The individual must make at least $3,000 a year, be between 18 and 64, not be a student and live independently.
In Guelph-Wellington about five per cent of the population that is of working age is in the working poor category. Ellery says that while there hasn’t been any change from 2012 to 2015 on average in the local area, the percentage remains below the provincial average of 7.3% in 2012 and 7.1% in 2015.
Some areas have a higher percentage of working poor and some have a lower percentage, Ellery said, with the highest percentage of working poor found in Wellington North, Minto, Mapleton and Guelph. Some areas have experienced larger variation between 2012 and 2015.
In Minto, for example, the percentage of working poor went down from 6.7% in 2012 to 5.8% in 2015, whereas in Puslinch the percentage of working poor went up from 3.7% in 2012 to 4.8% in 2015.
“That gives us some information to do some more digging about what has happened in those communities that have resulted in those changes,” Ellery said.
The report also indicated that 66% of the working poor do not make enough to support their family, 18% have multiple jobs to makes ends meet, 11% think they will have enough money to retire at 65 years old, 71% have trouble accessing food and 52% do not have enough income to meet basic needs.
Ellery said the poverty task force sent out a survey to compare the experiences of the working poor with those of the working non-poor. The task force also held three different focus groups.
“We know that low income precarious work disproportionately impacts women, racialized workers, new immigrants and so we did three different focus groups as well, one with youth, one with indigenous peoples and one with newcomers to make sure we’re drawing those experiences out as well.”
Some of the results surrounding the health sector include:
– 73% of the working poor have no health benefits, compared to 16% of the working non-poor;
– 77% of the working poor have no dental benefits, compared to 18% of the working non-poor;
– 43% of the working poor rated their physical health as poor or fair, compared to 17% of the working non-poor;
– 43% of the working poor said they had good to excellent physical health, compared to 83% of the working non-poor; and
– 62% of the working poor said that they rated their mental health as poor to fair, compared to 28% of the working non-poor.
Ellery added barriers to the working poor include transportation, inadequate health benefits and costs for accessing health care.
For newcomers and youth another barrier is lack of Canadian employment experience.
“A lot of the youth talked about how … what we may have considered entry level conditions are now asking for three to five years of experience,” she said.
“So just getting into the labour market is challenging for those groups.”
She also said lack of education and language are additional barriers.
“It’s not very often that I get to share a report like this and then directly point to a positive path forward,” Ellery said.
“And so it’s a really great opportunity to release this today and know that Bill 148 has passed and that it will have a significant impact on the working poor in our community and so I’m very thankful for that and pleased to have this opportunity.”
Guelph MPP Liz Sandals was also at the announcement.
“Many people are struggling to support their families on part-time, temporary or minimum wage work,” Sandals said. “People are raising families on minimum wage, which goes against the assumption that people have … that it’s only students that are on minimum wage, it’s only young singles that are on minimum wage, families aren’t really on minimum wage and that’s just not factually true.”
Bill 148, or the Fair Workplaces Better Jobs Act, recently became law in Ontario and Sandals said it will help address some of the concerns and barriers experienced by those in the working poor category:
– minimum wage will increase to $14 an hour in January and $15 in January 2019 with subsequent annual increases to reflect the rate of inflation;
– equal pay for part-time, temporary, casual and seasonal employees doing the same job as full-time employees;
– expand personal emergency leave;
– provide up to 17 weeks off when a worker or their child has experienced or is threatened with domestic or sexual violence; and
– require employees to be paid for three hours of work if their shift is cancelled within 48 hours of its scheduled start time.
To see the task force report visit gwpoverty.ca.
