Monday October 20, 2014 – 12pm
Posted Oct 20, 2014 01:29:57 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
12:00- Living Wage versus Minimum Wage
Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Chair of the Living Wage Waterloo Region steering committee and People in Poverty program co-ordinator with Mennonite Central Committee Ontario
Minimum wage is not enough. A report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is figuring out “Living Wage” in Waterloo. The report shows an average person with a family Waterloo needs to be making $16 an hour to afford the cost of living. Right now, minimum wage in Ontario is $11 an hour. deGroot-Maggetti, says living wage is based on a two adult, two children family, in which the adults work full-time all year. “It’s enough to cover their monthly expenses for everything from food, shelter, transportation, health care, the children’s school fees and also enough for the family to participate in the community, to take a modest community; camping for example,” says deGroot-Maggetti. The committee is launching the living wage employers program on November 4th recognizing employers in the region offering the living wage of $16 an hour. “For many employers in the region, they’re paying many of their employees already at or above the living wage,” says deGroot-Maggetti. “We’ll probably have a-half-dozen employers lined up and we’re beginning to get requests in from other employers in the community as they learn about the program.” In comparison around the region, Hamilton’s living wage was $14.95, Guelph sits at $15.95 and Halton Region is upwards of $17 an hour. The lowest nationally is $13 in Medicine Hat, Alberta while the highest, is $20.10 in Vancouver, BC.
12:30- Parents with Children playing Competitive Hockey
Deborah McPhee, Professor with the Goodman School of Business at Brock University
McPhee has explored coping strategies gathered through interviews with parents of competitive youth hockey players. From coast-to-coast, Canadians are passionate about hockey. Ask any parent with children enrolled in competitive hockey under the age of 16 about the demands this particular sport places on the family and work, and you will hear the same reply: It is time consuming, competitive, expensive, and probably one of the major enjoyments of her/his life. In 2010, Hockey Canada reported 572,411 registered male and female youth hockey players in Canada. This number of players translates into approximately 1.1 million parents, which according to StatsCan (2011) represented 7% of the workforce. Watching one’s son or daughter play hockey may be extremely satisfying, but a high demand activity such as a child’s competitive hockey places undue hardships on employers. Parents are away from work for varying time periods on a regular basis throughout the seven-month hockey season, sometimes stretching out to 12 months at more competitive levels. Conversely, a child’s competitive hockey commitment also places undue hardship on a family because of the excessive time required to attend practices, games, and/or tournaments. Consequently, the absenteeism of hockey parents from work poses a substantial loss of productivity for employers and highlights a need for both employee and employer-based strategies to help workers balance work and family and stem this potential loss of productivity.
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