Share Of Workers In Minimum Wage Jobs Has Grown Fivefold In Ontario: Study (Huffington Post)

[inanna]

Posted: 06/15/2015 2:46 pm EDT

In 1997, one in 40 Ontario workers was working for minimum wage. Today, it's one out of every eight.

That's according to a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which found low-wage jobs in Canada’s largest province have been growing at a pace that is more than three times as fast as overall job growth since 1997.

The study from the left-leaning institute, based on Statistics Canada data, paints a picture of a central Canadian economy that is rapidly losing higher-wage, unionized manufacturing jobs in favour of lower-wage, non-union service jobs. The result of this shift has been a rise in “precarious” employment such as contract work, temp work and part-time hours.

While the total number of jobs in Ontario grew by 30 per cent over the past 17 years, the number of low-wage jobs (defined as paying an hourly rate within four dollars of the minimum wage) grew by 94 per cent, the study found.

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The report aims to dispel the “myth” that minimum-wage workers are mostly teenagers living at home and saving up for the latest smartphone.

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Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/06/15/ontario-wages-earnings-ccpa_n_7587844.html