The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative released its latest report on living wages in Nova Scotia this morning.
This year, CCPA-NS includes new living wage calculations for five economic regions: Annapolis valley (Annapolis, Kings, and Hants counties); Cape Breton (Cape Breton, Inverness, Richmond and Victoria counties); Halifax (Halifax County); Northern (Antigonish, Colchester, Cumberland, Guysborough, and Pictou counties); Southern (Digby, Lunenburg, Queens, Shelbourne, and Yarmouth counties). You can read the complete report这里。
In the Halifax region, the new living wage is $22.05/hr. That’s up from $21.80/hr. Meanwhile across the province, living wages are $21.30 for the Annapolis valley, $18.45 in Cape Breton, $19.20 in the Northern region, and $21.03 in the Southern region. The current minimum wage in Nova Scotia is $12.95/hr.
The report notes that the three most costly items in all five of the regions are shelter, food, and child care, which when combined make up 60% of budgets in each region. The report noted, however, that shelter costs in Halifax do not reflect the rentals currently available on the market because the data for the report is from October 2020.
哈利法克斯生活工资的成本分解。图形：CCPA-NS
The introduction of the report notes that low wages in many sectors in Nova Scotia, including food service and accommodations, means, “workers are left living to work instead of working to live.”
许多人不断寻求方法来填补收入不足的空白，无论是访问食品银行还是社区晚餐，或寻求提供折扣或免费商品和服务的其他社区支持。工人必须长时间工作，经常在多个工作中工作，几乎没有时间与孩子一起玩，或者考虑通过额外的教育或培训来提高技能。当人们生活时，他们没有时间进行社区活动，从而影响我们的集体活力。每个人都应该做一份体面的工作，以支持他们生活，与朋友和家人度过美好的时光，一些闲暇时间以及充电的时间 - 这也使他们能够成为自己的最佳工作。
Paying a living wage is part of the just recovery that needs to happen. In one of the largest sectors of low wage workers, employers in food and accommodation services have difficulty finding labour, but this is more about a shortage of workers willing to work at the current wage rate and job conditions.
CCPA-NS报告还分解了2020年至2021年哈利法克斯和布雷顿角的增加成本，这解释了这些地区的生活工资的增加：
哈利法克斯：
布雷顿角：
计算生活工资是为了显示一个家庭必须赚取多少涵盖所有必需品，例如庇护所和食物，同时还允许家庭享受体面的生活质量。该计算遵循加拿大生活工资框架，其基于一个四口之家的示例，有两个父母全职工作（每周35小时）。
Living wage amounts don’t include credit card or loan payments, savings for retirement, life insurance, home ownership costs such as property taxes, home maintenance and repairs, or costs associated with a child or adult family member who has disabilities or serious illness.
在哈利法克斯，活着的工资雇主包括Adsum House，自2016年以来，它已经为员工支付了生活工资自行车史密斯（Cyclesmith）于9月开始向员工支付生活工资和Coverdale Courtwork Society, which also started paying its staff a living wage in September.
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An unfortunate part of the problem is the lack of financial literacy.
许多人为自己认为是好工资而努力的工作，而实际上没有。我们将有一代人依靠政府在退休中生存 - 不是因为他们没有保存，而是因为他们不能保存。
That will mean massive taxes later because of private sector excess. Some sectors like restaurants can’t pay a living wage, but they could very likely pay a variable component quarterly depending on profitability.
这也意味着更少的工作，但质量更好。小型企业主可能无法尽快扩展，这将减缓增长，但最终应该减少生活在贫困中的人数。