Halifax councillor proposes $15 minimum wage for city staff

A Halifax councillor is proposing to hike pay for some city employees ahead of provincial minimum wage increases.

While the municipality has aliving wage policy涵盖一些承包商的工作人员，HRM自己的员工没有工资保障。

哈利法克斯的生活工资，according to the latest calculation from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is $22.05. Minimum wage in Nova Scotia is rising 40 cents to $13.35 an hour on April 1, with a plan to reach $15 by April 1, 2024.

国家。肖恩清澈带来了运动到A.virtual meeting周三委员会审计和财政常务委员会要求一份员工报告所有工作人员的最低工资15美元。

“我认为这对市政时刻来看，只需等待省份，这一直恰好在过去十年中的速度太慢，以增加最低工资，”清晰说。

该议案涵盖了HRM员工，以及在哈利法克斯公共图书馆和Zatzman Sportsplex和加拿大游戏中心等多区娱乐设施的人员，它涵盖了兼职，休闲和临时员工。

Most of the city’s direct full-time staff make more than $15 an hour, Cleary pointed out.

“We’re talking about a fitness instructor, for example, who might teach classes at four or five different facilities, being paid 14 bucks an hour, or as a class cost, a fixed rate,” he said.

“我认为这只是为了让人们支付公平的金额，并继续将其达到生活的工资。”

The Halifax West-Armdale councillor’s proposal would see the wage implemented by April 1, 2023 at the latest, and he brought an amendment to the committee proposing to raise the figure to a living wage a year later.

“Essentially what this would do is to say, ‘Okay, let’s move to 15 bucks an hour next year, and then the year after, let’s see what the impact would be if we were to go up to the living wage,'” Cleary said.

国家。Trish Purdy是对Cleary提案的唯一投票，这是关于员工报告要求的修正案和投票。

“我觉得这一点令人敬畏，”斯迪说。“Every business person I’ve spoken to about this — because this is very interesting to me, this living wage concept, because it seems like yes, obviously amazing idea — but not one business owner has said that this is good because of the implications that this will cause.”

In fact, many business owners are choosing to pay their employees a living wage. Cyclesmith, for example,实施了一个生活工资政策在九月。

Cleary表示，他认为大多数雇主已经支付了生存工资。

“只有那些试图通过员工的背部赚取更多利润的人才会关注这个和坦率，我并不关心他们，”他说。

Purdy also raised concerns about whether HRM can impose higher wages on the multi-district facilities, since they are run by separate boards. Cleary pointed out HRM owns them, and can stipulate higher wages in its agreements with them.

That motion will go to council for a final decision on whether to order the staff report.

委员会还建议支持changes to the municipality’s property tax relief program在星期三的会议期间。拟议的变更将提高该计划的收入门槛，以更好地匹配生活工资。

That household income threshold would rise from $36,000 to $43,000, which staff said would “serve nearly 40% more low-income households,” equal to 600 property owners. The changes would also increase the maximum tax exemption available from $1,050 to $1,200. The average rebate would rise from $641 to $733.

Andre Macneil是HRM的高级财务顾问表示，提出的税收救济将超过抵消平均税收法案增加4.6％contemplated during this year’s budget discussions.

该计划每年缴纳额外的170万美元，现在举办了委员会的决定。

---

订阅Halifax审查员

We have many othersubscription options available，或删除我们a donation。谢谢！