An Ontario City Is Now The 2nd-Biggest Municipality In Canada To Pay Employees A Living Wage
No, it's not Toronto.
Aerial view of St. Catharines, Ontario.
If you're looking to move somewhere where they will pay you living wages in Ontario, well, you might want to move over to St. Catharines.
The City of St. Catharines is not only officially the biggest municipality in the province to pay employees a living wage, but according to Living Wage Canada, it is also the second-largest certified municipal employer across the whole country.
It's the only Ontario city to crack the top three certified living wage municipalities, with Vancouver and Victoria in B.C. coming in at first and third, respectively.
The announcement about St. Catharines' achievement for the province was made during a City Council meeting on June 27, when the staff from the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN) and Niagara Poverty Reduction Network joined in to share the news.
"As part of this certification, the city has pledged to meet champion-level requirements to 2024. While full-time employees are paid a living wage, this means part-time staff and employees of the city contractors will be brought up [to] at least the minimum threshold of the living wage by 2024," St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik said at the Monday meeting.
On Twitter, City Councillor Greg Miller announced that the City of St. Catharines is now the largest certified living wage employer in Niagara and the latest certified municipality in the province.
So, what is a living wage? Well, according to OLWN, a living wage is a calculation of how much someone needs in order to live where they do and afford basic things like food, transportation, medical care, housing and a "modest vacation."
Based on the OLWN's data from late last year, the living wage rate for Niagara Region is $18.90 per hour, which is over three dollars more than the province's current minimum wage.