Young People's Wages Fell 10% Under The Tories, Says Labour

Young Britons have been hit by a real-terms drop in weekly wages of around 10% under the coalition, analysis released by Labour shows.

Earnings for 18 to 21-year-olds have dropped by 10.3% since 2010, while 22 to 29-year-olds saw their weekly income fall by 9.4%, according to research by the House of Commons library.

Women's work and the systemic reasons behind the gender pay gap

My mother says that when she graduated from high school in 1972, she had two occupational choices: nurse or teacher. Nurse and teacher are still the most popular choices for women entering the workforce. Statistics Canada said that more than20 per cent of all female university graduates in 2011 were teachers or nurses, unchanged from 1991.

Ontario's Equal Pay Day got me thinking about women's work, and the systemic reasons behind the stubborn pay gap. Aside from outright discrimination, occupational segregation and unpaid care demands contribute significantly to women's lower wages.

Hugh Segal, Tory Senator, Takes Parting Shot At Harper Over 'Fair Wages'

Now here’s something you don’t see very often — a Tory defending unions and praising their role in the economy.

Granted, the Tory in question is a Red Tory, a veteran of the Mulroney years and Ontario PC Premier Bill Davis’ government in the 1970s and 1980s.

All the same, Tory Senator Hugh Segal — who announced his retirement from the Senate on Thursday — gave the Harper government something of a lesson on the long-standing, historical support Canadian Tories have given unions — until recently, that is.

Personal support workers walk off job, demand wage increase and justice

Over 4,000 personal support workers (PSWs) walked off the job on Wednesday December 11 as part of a province wide strike.

PSWs working for Red Cross Care Partners have been in a legal strike position for several weeks. Workers contend that their actual wages have dropped seven per cent in the last two years due to a wage freeze combined with inflation and the increase in gas prices.

"They are paid poverty-level wages of $15 an hour and are expected to pay for gas out of pocket when they drive long distances to make home visits" said Sharleen Stewart, the president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Canada, which represents the 4,500 affected workers, in a statement released to media.

Swiss Activists: Let’s Cap CEO Pay

Not all that many generations ago, the idea of an income floor for working Americans—a minimum wage—seemed impractically utopian. Today we have mandated state and national minimum wages, and the vast majority of Americans want these minimums kept at meaningful levels, as voters made clear most recently in New Jersey.

But what about the notion of a “maximum wage,” a ceiling on the income any one individual can grab from the marketplace? Could a wage maximum ever become as central to our sense of social decency as a wage minimum?

Woman Who Taught At College For Decades Dies Making Reportedly Less Than $25,000 A Year

An op-ed went viral Wednesday, in which the last days of Duquesne University adjunct instructor Margaret Mary Vojtko were described as emblematic of the plight of part-time contract faculty. But the college where she taught says that depiction is far from the truth.

Daniel Kovalik, senior associate general counsel for the United Steelworkers union, wrote in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette column that he was likely the last person to speak to Vojtko prior to her death. Although Vojtko had taught at Duquesne for more than 20 years, Kovalik said that she only earned around $3,500 per three-credit course at the private Catholic university.

Fair wages and city cleaners: The battle for a living wage in Toronto

On July 16, Toronto City Council will vote on a proposal to amend the city's Fair Wage Policy. The policy, which was established in 1893, requires contractors and suppliers for the city to pay their workers the prevailing market wages and benefits in their field of employment or, for unionized fields, union rates. The basic idea behind the policy is to protect workers from unscrupulous contractors trying to underbid their competitors by paying their workers less than the prevailing wage rates. A second goal of the policy is to enhance the city's reputation for engaging in ethical and fair business dealings.

The city's Fair Wage Policy currently covers workers in six sectors, including construction workers, cleaners and security guards. Fair wage rates are determined by local market conditions and vary significantly across sectors. For example, the fair wage rate for carpenters employed by city contractors in Toronto is nearly three times higher than that of light duty cleaners.