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Common Front for Social Justice |
It is reasonable to expect an individual who works 40 hours a week all through the year to be able to get out of poverty. In January 2007 in New Brunswick, an individual working at minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. But according to Statistics Canada, this individual remains below the poverty line, a lower limit which was set, for an unattached individual living in a community of between 30,000 and 100,000 inhabitants at $ 17,784 before income tax, in 2005 . To reach that income level, minimum wage would have to be set at $8.55 an hour . For a family comprised of two adults and two children, and living in the same type of community, the low-income cut-off is set at about $33,000 per year.
The figure below shows the variation in minimum wage among Canada's ten provinces. Even after an increase to $7.00 an hour in January 2007, minimum wage in New Brunswick remains among the three lowest in the country.
People who are opposed to increasing minimum wage claim that this « kills jobs ». Recent studies (www.napo-onap.ca/fr/news/une_coalition_mb.php) and a look at the impact of recent increases in NB indicate that negative effects of increasing minimum wage are negligible to non-existent. In fact, there are positive effects: more money to spend, improved health, and an increased capacity to find adequate housing and nourishing food.
Sources : (a) ledevoir.com/2007/01/04/126377.html; (b) www110.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/psait_spila/lmnec_esclescl/salaire_minwage/report2/
The CFSJ proposes that the government of New Brunswick increase its minimum wage to $8.55 an hour and increase it gradually to $10 an hour , so that people's income allows them to move out of poverty.