Labour Day Would Be Even Happier If Every Worker Made A Living Wage
A Brief Message from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large
Posted on Labour Day, September 2nd, 2024
It has often been said in both Canada and the United States that it is working people who have built and who continue to build our communities and countries, and I believe that to be true.
Without health care workers, grocery store workers, construction workers and so many others labouring on the front line through good times and bad times (including pandemics), the corporate barons and their shareholders would not be racking in the record amount of Do-Re-Mi s0 many of them are drowning in today.
Yet we continue to see employees at grocery store chains working for wages that are not keeping up with the cost of living while the owners of those chains have been making obscene amounts of money selling food many in our communities are struggling to pay for.
And that is just one glaring example of what governments at all continue to tolerate while the wage gap between working people and the super-rich keeps growing
What every worker needs is a wage that gives them more of a chance to cover the cost of living and make life for themselves and their loved ones better.
What is a living wage?
According to an organization called Living Wage Niagara, supported by, among other parties, United Way, “A living wage is an evidence-based calculation that reflects what a worker needs to earn to cover the cost of living in their community. In Niagara, the living wage for 2023/24 was calculated at $20.35 per hour.”
The current minimum wage that too many workers struggle to get by with in Ontario, thanks to a Ford government that delayed deadlines for raising it when it came into power in 2018, is $16.55 per hour and will be going up a measly 65 cents this October.
That is unacceptable and all of us who appreciate the value and benefits regular, everyday working people bring to our communities should be raising our voice and using our votes at election time for a living wage for all.
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Happy Labour Day, Doug Draper, NAL
For more on Living Wage Niagara, click on – https://www.livingwageniagara.ca/site/home
Here is one of many reports over the past four or five years – this one from CTV – on the grocery chains exploiting their employees and gouging customers while making record profits – https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/loblaw-ending-2-per-hour-pandemic-pay-for-workers-despite-soaring-profits-1.4980580?cache=%3FclipId%3D89619%2F7.337230%2F7.337230%2F7.303425%2F7.292746%2F7.337230%2F7.301265%2F7.328397%3Fot%3DAjaxLayout%2F7.303425
Finally, click on the screen below to hear and watch the group Huey Lews and the News perform a song about working for a living –
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 
Sadly, the people of Ontario don’t vote for workers or workers’ salaries or benefits. They vote for big corporations and shareholders. Voters, it would seem are a gullible lot who get their news through Tik Tok and their messaging through Conservative slogans like “buck-a-beer” and “axe the tax”. I hope you keep trying to educate voters through your newsletter.
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