Minimum Wage / Living Wage

Salaire Minimum / "Living Wage"

Updated May 16, 2010
Page révisée le 16 mai 2010

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[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

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From the British Columbia Office of the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:

News Release
May 4, 2010
Vancouver --- $18.17 is the 2010 family living wage, according to a report released today that calculates an hourly wage based on the real costs of raising a family in Vancouver. Working for a Living Wage 2010: Making Paid Work Meet Basic Family Needs in Metro Vancouver updates the first Metro Vancouver calculation published in 2008, and was released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, and the Metro Vancouver Living Wage for Families Campaign.

(PDF - 419K, 8 pages)
by Tim Richards, Marcy Cohen, Seth Klein
May 2010

Related links:

* (PDF - 2.9MB, 52 pages)
(Original complete report)
September 2008

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To get involved or to become a Living Wage employer, you can start by visiting this website, which is the home page of the Metro Vancouver Living Wage for Families Campaign
- incl. links to :
* Home * What is a Living Wage? * Get Involved * * Living Wage Employers * About Us

Source:

Recent release from []:

From the March 2010 online edition of
:

Minimum wage
*
* (170K, 9 pages)
Abstract: All provinces and territories set minimum wages in their employment standards legislation. This update uses the Labour Force Survey to examine the characteristics of those who work at or below the minimum wage for experienced adults in each jurisdiction. The incidence of working for minimum wage has increased each year since 2006 but remains concentrated among youth, particularly young women.

March 31, 2010
Table showing the old (March 31, 2009) and new (March 31, 2010) minimum wage rates for general workers, for students, for liquor servers, for homeworkers, and for hunting/fishing guides.
- also includes more detailed information about conditions that apply to the special (i.e., non-general) categories
[ - March 30]
Source:

[ ]

How does that compare
with other Canadian jurisdictions?

(this is the BEST resource for info on current and upcoming minimum wage levels by province/territory)
NOTE: In addition to Ontario, several other jurisdictions have either recently increased their minimum wage level or will be doing so in the coming months.
Click the link above to see who changed when...
Source:

[ ]
[ ]

Related links:

By John Stapleton
March 31, 2010
With the recent increase in Ontario's minimum wage, the gap between the minimum wage and the welfare rate is as wide as it was during the Depression. [ At the time, a single person's maximum welfare payment ("relief packet") amounted to 36 per cent of what someone could make working for minimum wage.]
(...) The yearly difference between the single welfare rate and minimum wage is now $19,500 in gross minimum wages versus $7,020 in basic assistance. So we have the same stark work incentives as we did in the depths of the Great Depression. Who says history doesn't repeat itself?
Source:
- News and Perspectives Daily
- John Stapleton's personal website, incl. links to his other writings

________________________

Related historical snapshots:

Minimum wage vs
cost of living in 1975 and in 2007 (PDF - 251K, 1 page)
How living costs have outgrown the minimum wage
- compares how much work time it would take, working at the prevailing minimum wage in 1975 and 2007, to pay for ordinary purchases such as a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs.
Source:

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Annual Minimum Wage Income* by Province, 1976 and 1995
(constant 1995$)

British Columbia

By Marjorie Griffin Cohen and Iglika Ivanova
January 20, 2010
As we prepare to cheer for our athletes during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games, it's worth remembering the fields in which B.C. isn't going for the gold. Ensuring that work is a guaranteed way out of poverty, for example. It's a little-known fact, but "the best place on Earth" is now home of the lowest minimum wages in Canada. Our minimum wage has been frozen at $8 per hour (and an embarrassingly low $6 for the first 500 hours of work) since 2001, and there is little indication that this is about to change any time soon.
Source:

[ ]

How does that compare
with other Canadian jurisdictions?

(this is the BEST resource for info on current and upcoming minimum wage levels by province/territory)

This information is presented in five files - one for each decade.
The link above takes you to the latest decade (2005 to 2014);
click the date links at the top of the page for pages for earlier decades.

NOTE: In addition to Ontario, several other jurisdictions have either recently increased their minimum wage level or will be doing so in the coming months.
Click the link above to see who changed when...

Source:

[ ]
[ ]

- Go to the Non-Governmental Sites in British Columbia (D-W) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bcbkmrk3.htm

New Brunswick

January 5, 2010
New Brunswick is sticking with its plan to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour over the next 20 months — with one of the increases coming in the middle of the government's September re-election campaign. But Labour Minister Donald Arseneault said the minimum wage is not about politics. "To bring our minimum wage to the Atlantic average by September 2011 is a priority issue for our province if we are going to reduce the level of poverty in our province," Arseneault said Tuesday. About four per cent of New Brunswick workers earn the minimum wage.
The wage will rise in four steps:
* April 1, 2010: an increase of 25 cents to $8.50 per hour.
* Sept. 1, 2010, an increase of 50 cents to $9 per hour.
* April 1, 2011: an increase of 50 cents to $9.50 per hour.
* Sept. 1, 2011: an increase of 50 cents to $10 per hour.
Source:

______________________________

How does that compare
with other Canadian jurisdictions?

(this is the BEST resource for info on current and upcoming minimum wage levels by province/territory)

This information is broken up into five files - one for each decade.
The link above takes you to the latest decade (2005 to 2014); click the date links at the top of the page for pages for earlier decades.

NOTE: Several other jurisdictions have either recently increased their minimum wage level or will be doing so in the coming months.
Highlights:
* Newfoundland and Labrador increased its minimum wage from $9.00 to $9.50 as of January 1.
* Nova Scotia will increase its minimum wage twice this year - in April and October. The current level is $8.60, increasing to $9.65 as of October.
* Ontario's minimum wage, currently $9.50, will increase to $10.25 at the end of March.
* Since 2007, Yukon increases its minimum wage each April to match increase in the Consumer Price Index for the City of Whitehorse.
For more information, see (this is the same link as above)

Source:

[ ]
[ ]

- Go to the New Brunswick Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/nbkmrk.htm

British Columbia

December 16, 2009
In times of such financial uncertainty very few people are asking for raises. Among those people are Canada’s lowest paid workers – those making under $10 an hour. Since November 2001, the Campbell government has frozen the $8 minimum and the “loophole” training wage of $6 was introduced in 2002. British Columbia holds the record for the lowest minimum wage, lowest training wage and the longest time since the minimum wage has been updated.
Source:

__________________

Related link from the
BC Federation of Labour:

August 31, 2009
Victoria-Tomorrow British Columbia will become the lowest minimum wage province in all of Canada as New Brunswick raises its minimum wage to $8.25. A group of young workers gathered in front of the provincial legislature called BC's minimum wage freeze an embarrassment.
Source:

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Related article:

August 31, 2009
VICTORIA — The B.C. Federation of Labour is painting British Columbia as an embarrassment as the province is on the eve of having the lowest minimum wage in Canada. The federation said when New Brunswick raises its minimum wage to $8.25, B.C. will join Prince Edward Island as the only province in Canada still holding to an $8 minimum.
Source:

- Go to the Non-Governmental Sites in British Columbia (A-C) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bcbkmrk2.htm

What's New from []:

Minimum wage
* Full article: |
Abstract:
Most minimum-wage workers are women and young. The incidence of working for minimum wage declines sharply with age before rising slightly among those 55 and older. The latter could reflect some of the low-wage occupations in which a number of working seniors tend to be concentrated. This fact-sheet also contains information on other characteristics of minimum-wage workers.
Source:

January 23, 2009

ONTARIO

From the :

News Release
March 28, 2008
When minimum wage earners in Ontario go to work Monday, they will be getting a raise.
Ontario is raising the minimum wage to $8.75 on March 31, 2008. This is the fifth increase since 2004.

- two more increases to get it up to $10.25 per hour by March 31, 2010

- excellent info about the minimum wage in Ontario in a question-and-answer format

Source:

"... the official website of the Ontario Ministry of Labour
for young workers and new workers."

Related links:

Editorial
April 1, 2008
Some social activists are calling it "recession spook" – the talk of a looming economic downturn and the subsequent need to rein in the province's anti-poverty agenda. In that vein, some economists have warned that yesterday's 75-cent increase in the minimum wage to $8.75 an hour will lead to job losses. But the evidence for that is inconclusive, at best.
Source:

NOTE: All Canadian jurisdictions are increasing their minimum wage levels in 2008, most in April or May.
Given the limited resources available in a one-person operation like Canadian Social Research Links, minimum wages aren't covered in this site as well as they could be (except in my own province, of course...); click the link above to see when and by how much the minimum wage level is increasing in all provinces and territories, from 2005 to 2014.
Source:

From :
(International)
This resource is worth viewing --- it contains information on minimum wages in 17 countries (including Canada), along with some objective information on the debate over consequences of minimum wage laws, costs and benefits of minimum wage legislation, recent trends in the U.S., policy alternatives to the minimum wage and much more.
TIP: See "References" and "External Links" (at the bottom of the ) for links to dozens and dozens of free online resources!

WorkRights gives you a chance to access the latest information on the labour codes to your province, and to compare practices in your region with those of other provinces and territories in Canada.
HINT: for info on Canadian minimum wages, click on "Getting Paid" in the left margin of the page, then on "minimum wages"

Does a higher minimum wage mean fewer jobs?

February 5, 2007
"(...) Predictably, the growing momentum for a higher minimum wage has generated cries from business and employer-friendly governments that such a move is an “inefficient” way of fighting poverty, and will come at the cost of jobs. (...) With respect to the job loss argument, individual studies by economists can be and are endlessly cited on one side or other of this endless debate. However, the consensus of even the impeccably orthodox and mainstream economists at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is now that minimum wages set at “reasonable” levels do not have significant negative impacts on the employment of so-called lower-skilled adults.

(PDF file - 40K, 3 pages)
January 2007
Andrew Jackson

Source:

April 17, 2007
Some things are as reliable as Pavlov's dog. The NDP issued a news release calling for the minimum wage to be increased to $10 an hour and the salivating dogs, in this case the BC Chamber of Commerce and Retail BC, promptly countered with criticism of the idea. Retail BC argued that most businesses already pay more than the minimum wage. By contrast, the Chamber's release argued that an increase would impose an increase in "labour costs of over $450 million" on small businesses.

Source:

Press Release
March 26, 2007
TORONTO – Not a single province in Canada pays a minimum wage that lifts working Canadians out of poverty, concludes a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Bringing Minimum Wages Above the Poverty Line shows that provincial governments have allowed the value of minimum wages to be eaten away by inflation for too long. Since 1990, their real dollar value has flatlined or increased only slightly in every Canadian province.

(PDF file - 877K, 56 pages)
March 2007
By Stuart Murray and Hugh Mackenzie
(PDF file - 248K, 6 pages)

(PDF file - 167K, 3 pages)
February 2007
By Hugh Mackenzie
Complete report
"(...) Ontario’s minimum wage used to be more in line with the province’s industrial wage. In fact, the minimum wage in Ontario was as high as $9.97 in 1976 (adjusted to 2007 dollars, based on the Toronto area consumer price index)."

(PDF file - 958K, 8 pages)

Source:

January 20, 2007
Rita Daly
"You have to admire people like Sam Thuraisamy. For the last 14 years he has delivered tens of thousands of pizzas across the city and says he has only himself to blame for a lifetime of long hours and dismally low pay."
Re. the upcoming Ontario minimum wage increase
See also:

January 20, 2007

Source:

What's New from the - Paris
- CERC[version française]

. (PDF file - 250K, 4 pages) N. Elgrably, , IEDM, Montréal, Les notes économiques, December 2006
Geographical area : Canada

News Release
January 3, 2007
TORONTO — The Ontario government is raising the minimum wage on February 1, 2007, for the fourth time since taking office, Labour Minister Steve Peters announced today.
“We are providing Ontario’s lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers with the fourth increase in the minimum wage in four years,” said Peters. “It is to Ontario’s economic advantage to see that our workers are paid a fair wage.” The general minimum wage will be raised to $8.00 per hour on February 1, 2007.

- incl. current and historical minimum wage levels for specific job categories going back to 1995 under the former Tory government

Source:

Also from the same Ministry:

Source:

"... the official website of the Ontario Ministry of Labour
for young workers and new workers."

WorkRights gives you a chance to access the latest information on the labour codes to your province, and to compare practices in your region with those of other provinces and territories in Canada.
HINT: for info on Canadian minimum wages, click on "Getting Paid" in the left margin of the page, then on "minimum wages"

Google Web Search Results:
""
Google News Search Results:
""
Google Blog Search Results
""
Source:

Now that the Democrats have regained power in the U.S. Congress, they're planning quick action
on legislative priorities that include boosting both the minimum wage and stem cell research.
(The link takes you to a Google.ca search results for "U.S., minimum wage")

Nov 6, 2006
The campaign for living wages has gathered momentum with bills sponsored by NDP members in both the federal Parliament and the Ontario legislature to increase the minimum wage to $10/hour. The just-released report on Federal Labour Standards also strongly recommended that the federal minimum wage be reintroduced at a level that would allow full-time workers to live above the poverty line. Federal and provincial politicians claim that we can’t afford it. But as Commissioner Harry Arthurs stated in this report, "This is an issue of fundamental decency that no modern, prosperous country like Canada can ignore." The real value of the minimum wage everywhere in Canada is now not just far below the poverty line, but also far below what it was thirty years ago, as the following CUPE Economic Brief shows. And contrary to what some politicians and low wage employers claim, increasing the minimum wage tends to have few negative economic impacts and is often positive. We can afford it and we should do it.

Complete report:

(PDF file - 147K, 2 pages)
November 2006

Source:

From the :

(PDF - 39K, 10 pages)
By Anne Makhoul
May 2005
Responding to interest in the issue of poverty reduction through the payment of a ‘living wage,’ Vibrant Communities initiated a tele-learning forum to investigate the process of designing and initiating voluntary and mandatory living wage campaigns. This story summarizes current activities in the US, the City of Toronto and six Vibrant Communities. This story is the fifth in a series which highlights the efforts of local partners involved in Vibrant Communities – a pan-Canadian initiative that seeks local solutions to reduce poverty and build more caring communities.

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(PDF file - 20K, 3 pages)
February 2003
"Ontario has seen a steady decline in the value of its minimum wage because the rate has been frozen at $6.85 for eight long years."
Source:

(PDF file - 99K, 6 pages)
September 2005
Did you know?
- last year, 621,000 individuals worked at or below the minimum wage rate set by their province (4.6% of all employees in Canada)
- Alberta had by far the lowest proportion of employees working at or below minimum wage (0.9%), while Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest (6.5%)
- women accounted for almost two-thirds of minimum wage workers, but less than half of all employees
- one in three teenagers aged 15 to 19 worked for minimum wage (this age group accounted for nearly half of all minimum wage workers)
- the incidence of working for minimum wage declined sharply with age but rose slightly among those 55 and older

Source:
(HINT: follow this link to dozens of free articles --- I guarantee you'll find something of interest to you here.)
[ ]

Also from StatCan:

March 26, 2004
"Although minimum wage workers are often young people living with parents, others in this category are trying to support a family. To evaluate the effects of a change in the minimum wage, knowing who works for minimum wage and the types of jobs they hold is essential."
"In Canada, 1 in 25 employees worked at or below the minimum wage set by their province in 2003, but the incidence varied widely from province to province, according to a new profile of minimum-wage workers. This study, which used data from the Labour Force Survey, showed that nationally, some 547,000 people were minimum-wage workers in 2003."
Source:

[ ]

- PDF file - 32K, 2 pages)
August 4, 2005
"A job at $10.00 per hour, with benefits and opportunities for advancement, would draw many into the labour force. Such jobs provide dignity and respect. A wage of $7.25 does not. Nor does it make economic sense."

Source:

[ ]
[ ]

Income Redistribution in Canada: Minimum Wages versus Other Policy Instruments
Nicole M. Fortin and Thomas Lemieux
Revised December 1998
(PDF file - 56 pages, 419K)
Source : (University of British Columbia)

Annual Minimum Wage Income* by Province, 1976 and 1995
(constant 1995$)

- Ontario
Toronto Star Editorial
January 5, 2005
"People who earn the minimum wage in Ontario should not be the only ones celebrating the raise of 30 cents per hour that takes effect Feb. 1. The ripple effect through the local economy will likely be greater than from similar increases in any other job class. Certainly, minimum-wage earners have something to cheer. The new general rate of $7.45 still isn't a princely sum anywhere in Ontario in 2005, but it's a hike of more than four per cent on top of a similar 30-cent boost last year. It beats what happened in the nine years prior to 2004, when the rate stayed static."
Source:

NOTE : the general minimum wage in Ontario will rise twice again to reach $8 per hour in 2007.

By Stan Raybern
December 31, 2009
The U.S.federal minimum wage was established at $.25 per hour in 1938 and has increased over the years, in theory, to keep up with inflation, cost of living, and many other factors. Although the federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25, each individual state ultimately has the ability to set their own minimum wage. Residents of Kansas are keenly aware of this fact, where the state minimum wage is set at an astonishing $2.65. Check out where your state stands against the rest of the country, as well as other thought provoking facts as we take a look at the past, present, and future of minimum wage across America
Source:
(Blog)

(PDF - 401K, 34 pages)
By D. Hirsch, A. Davis and N. Smith
April 2009
Source:
, London

(PDF - 1MB, 32 pages)
November 2008
By T. K Bauer and alii,
, Essen

(PDF - 356K, 31 pages)
December 2008
BY A. Knabe and R. Schöb,
, Munich

From the (U.S.) Employment Policies Institute:

(PDF - 3.1MB, 28 pages)
September 2008
- HTML
As this year’s economic crisis hit everyone’s pocketbooks, some advocates called for another increase in the federal minimum wage (from to $9.50) . (...) Economists at American University and Cornell University conclude this high minimum wage would fail to improve our nation’s poverty rate because (1) over 60 percent of the benefits would go to families with incomes more than 2 times the federal poverty level, and (2) the job loss suffered by the lowest skilled employees could range from 450,000 to 4 million. The study also shows that the last minimum wage hike also fell short of achieving any poverty reductions, again because of poor target efficiency and resulting job loss.

Source:
(EPI)

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Lies, Damn Lies and The Internet

I enthusiastically encourage open dialogue between supporters of differing viewpoints.
What I object to is the misrepresentation of mission and objectives and the wilful omission of important contextual information, such as the fact that the Big Daddy at EPI is a Washington lobbyist for the restaurant, hotel, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries, all of which stand to gain from low minimum wage standards.

*

The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is one of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a Washington, DC public affairs firm owned by Rick Berman, who lobbies for the restaurant, hotel, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries [bolding added]. (...) EPI has has been widely quoted in news stories regarding minimum wage issues, and although a few of those stories have correctly described it as a "think tank financed by business," most stories fail to provide any identification that would enable readers to identify the vested interests behind its pronouncements. Instead, it is usually described exactly the way it describes itself, as a "non-profit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding employment growth" that "focuses on issues that affect entry-level employment." In reality, EPI's mission is to keep the minimum wage low so Berman's clients can continue to pay their workers as little as possible [more bolding added]. EPI also owns the internet domain names to MinimumWage.com and LivingWage.com, a website that attempts to portray the idea of a living wage for workers as some kind of insidious conspiracy."
Source:

[ * is a collaborative project of the to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy. SourceWatch also includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists and government agencies." ]

CAVEAT:

The "About..." page of any website should *always* include clear statements concerning who is 'behind' the site, whether they're called sponsors, funders partners, supporters or whatever, and what the site hopes to accomplish. In the case of the EPI, there's no mention on page of the vested interests of the industries that stand most to gain from the information that EPI disseminates. To say that "EPI sponsors nonpartisan research..." is a blatant falsehood.

The Bottom Line:

Beware of websites that misrepresent themselves.
* .
* .

See also:

... a joint venture between Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Center for Media and Democracy, two non-profit organizations whose mission includes consumer education using investigative reporting. This Web site seeks to expose front groups, which are organizations that state a particular agenda, while hiding or obscuring their identity, membership or sponsorship, or all three.

If you want to read some *credible* U.S. research
on the American minimum wage, see this site:

(See esp. - incl. "no evidence of job loss from previous minimum wage increases.")

Source:
The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy.

[ "The Employment Policies institute deliberately attempted to create confusion in the eyes of journalists and the general public by adopting a name which closely resembles the Economic Policy Institute, a much older, progressive think tank with ties to organized labor." - ]

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(PDF file - 1.5MB, 209 pages)
March 2008
, London
Geographical area : United Kingdom

- updated October 29, 2007
- links (in the right-hand margin) to 300 documents (statistics, working papers, reports) and websites
- incl. links to resources under the following headings:
* * * * * * *
(includes links to Canadian resources)
Source:
- Paris

---------------------------------------------------------------

(International)
This resource is worth viewing --- it contains information on minimum wages in 17 countries (including Canada), along with some objective information on the debate over consequences of minimum wage laws, costs and benefits of minimum wage legislation, recent trends in the U.S., policy alternatives to the minimum wage and much more.
TIP: See "References" and "External Links" (at the bottom of the ) for links to dozens and dozens of free online resources!
Source:

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- links to over 600 news articles about minimum wage,
including commentary and archival articles published in .

- U.S. (PDF file - 604K, 31 pages)
By J. J. Sabia
September 2007
"(...)Taken together, the 1990s and early 2000s saw important economic changes for single mothers. Employment rates, work hours, and wage income rose, while poverty rates and welfare use declined. The evidence presented in this study suggests that while pro-work welfare reforms, a growing macro-economy, and expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit program may have each played a role in these positive economic trends, that minimum wage increases reduced less-educated single mothers’ employment, hours worked, and wage income, while failing to alleviate poverty. The results of this study should serve as a caution to policymakers who view minimum wage hikes as a way to help single mothers."
Source:
- U.S.

- from
- incl. four charts + some very interesting links at the bottom of the page to many useful resources,

. - U.S., (PDF file - 62K, 16 pages) , Washington, February 2007.

. (PDF file - 1.28MB, 25 pages) R. J. Harrison, Y. Li and C. Gouveia, , Washington, (2007)

(PDF file - 4.2MB, 389 pages)March 2007,, London.

Found in:
, March 19, 2007
[ - Paris ]

Op-Ed by Sarah Hamersma
March 8, 2007
BOTH the House of Representatives and the Senate have recently passed bills raising the minimum wage. The Senate bill includes tax breaks for businesses, based on the following logic: While a minimum wage increase is popular, the resulting higher labor costs will translate into fewer jobs, more expensive products or both. The solution, the senators concluded, was to subsidize companies that hire disadvantaged workers, in order to reimburse them for these higher wage costs. Does this reasoning hold up? A look at one of the key pieces of this business tax package — the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which has been in place since 1996 and would be extended for five years under the proposal — suggests otherwise.
Source:

- links to over 600 news articles about minimum wage, including commentary and archival articles published in

(PDF file - 256K, 24 pages)
January 16, 2007
By Herwig Immervoll
International comparisons of minimum-wage levels have largely focused on the gross value of minimum wages, ignoring the effects of taxation on both labour costs and the net income of employees. This paper presents estimates of the tax burdens facing minimum-wage workers. These are used as a basis for cross-country comparisons of the net earnings of these workers as well as the cost of employing them. In addition, results show the evolution of net incomes and labour costs during the period and the relative importance of minimum-wage adjustments and tax reforms in driving these changes.
(...) Statutory minimum wages are in place in 21 OECD countries [including Canada - text and bolding added], ranging between USD 0.7 and USD 10 per hour.
This paper is the working paper version of a chapter to appear in the 2007 edition of Taxing Wages, an annual OECD publication.
Source:
<===links to 45 more papers!
[ ]
[ ]

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What's New from the - Paris
- CERC[version française]

(PDF file - 1.5MB, 209 pages)
March 2008
, London
Geographical area : United Kingdom

(PDF file - 220K, 10 pages) E. Maag, , Washington, Policy brief, tax policy, issues and options, n° 17
January 2007
Geographical area : United States

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- Australia
August 21, 2006
The evidence doesn't support this simple equation, writes John Quiggin*.
The creation of the Fair Pay Commission as part of the government’s WorkChoices legislation has led to a debate about the role of minimum wages for Australian workers. Whereas the Industrial Relations Commission set award wages for most workers, the Fair Pay Commission focuses exclusively on minimum wages and conditions. (...) In thinking about minimum wages, it is [also] necessary to look at interactions with the social welfare system. For those with dependent children, minimum wages in Australia are only marginally higher, after tax, than the social welfare benefits paid to unemployed or disabled workers. Hence, a reduction in the minimum wage could create or intensify “poverty traps.” Advocates of substantial reductions in minimum wages have generally favored “reform” (usually unspecified) of the social welfare system. (...) It is important to remember that minimum wages represent only a small part of a coherent labour market policy. The primary focus must be on managing the tax–welfare system to achieve a more equitable distribution of income while generating incentives to work. Minimum wages should be set with the same goal in mind."
--------------------------------------
*Author John Quiggin is an ARC Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland.
His web site is at and his weblog is at
--------------------------------------
Source:

With nearly 120 member centres and institutes, Australian Policy Online offers easy access to much of the best Australian social, economic, cultural and political research available online. APO is maintained by a network of university centres and over 120 centres and institutes around Australia.

------------------------------------------------

In a issued on Wednesday, October 11, five Nobel Prize winners and over 650 other economists endorsed a statement urging a raise in the minimum wage. The statement asserts that a modest raise in the minimum wage (in the range of a $1.00 to $2.50 per hour), with future increases indexed to protect the workers’ purchasing power, “can significantly improve the lives of low-income workers and their families, without the adverse effects that critics have claimed.”
- incl. links to two EPI articles on minimum wages
Posted October 28 by:
Andrew Jackson

"Commentary on Canadian economics and public policy"

(PDF file - 78K, 6 pages)
(United States), J. Bernstein and I. Shapiro, Washington, August 2006.
Source:

July 29
"The House voted to boost the minimum wage for the first time since 1997 in Republican-backed legislation that also cuts $310 billion in taxes, largely by reducing a levy on multimillion-dollar estates. The minimum wage increase, and the inclusion of $38 billion in tax cuts that many Democrats support, were described by some Republicans as a bid to attract votes for the estate tax legislation when it reaches the Senate, where it has been rejected twice in the last month."
Source:

(" Bloomberg is the leading global provider of data, news and analytics.")

NOTE: if passed by the U.S. Senate, the House measure would boost the federal minimum wage, now at $5.15 an hour, to $7.25 by June 1, 2009. Over 80% of the US population supports a minimum wage increase, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.

Related Link:

COMPARING THE HOUSE MINIMUM WAGE AND ESTATE TAX PROPOSALS:
Who Benefits and By How Much?
July 28
by Joel Friedman and Aviva Aron-Dine

, 2pp.
Source:
(Washington)

Google News Search Results:
""
Google Web Search Results:
""
Source:

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U.S. Minimum Wage Resources

UNHAPPY ANNIVERSARY:
Federal Minimum Wage Remains Unchanged for Eighth Straight Year, Falls to 56-Year Low Relative to the Average Wage
"September 1 marks eight years since the last federal minimum wage increase. In that time, its purchasing power has fallen 17 percent. Compared to average private sector wages, the minimum wage has sunk to its lowest point since 1949."

Unhappy Anniversary, a new report by Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and Isaac Shapiro, associate director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, examines the shrunken state of the minimum wage.
September 1, 2005

HTML version:

PDF version:
, 5pp

Source:

Related Link:

- U.S., international
This is the personal web of Brock Haussamen, an English professor at Raritan Valley Community College in North Branch, New Jersey. The site's purpose is "to provide those concerned about the federal minimum wage with an organized guide to the different sides of the issue". Professor Haussamen's position can be found on the Indexing page of his site --- he supports indexing the minimum wage. [So do I for Canada, applying the same logic to Canadian minimum wages.]
- incl. links to : Basics - The Case For - The Case Against - Indexing - Research - U. S. - Other Countries - Contact Me

- U.S.
Press Release
May 18 2005
"In the report, titled Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's Well-Being , the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) shows that, in 2004, 9.7 million children lived in a household with at least one worker earning between $5.15 and $7.25 per hour. A parent supporting two children and w orking full time at the current minimum wage of $5.15 would end up with an annual salary $4,500 below the poverty line . The pernicious sting of poverty puts these children at greater risk of poor health due to lack of affordable health care, increases their likelihood of falling behind in school and leaves families unable to pay for adequate housing, nutritious food or quality child care."

Complete report:

(PDF file - 124K, 5 pages)

Source:

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From the :

- clickable map, current levels

April 5, 2005
- incl. 10 tables with characteristics of minimum wage workers in 2004 ("Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, 2004 annual averages: 1. by selected characteristics 2. by census region and division 3. by State 4. by major occupation group 5. by major industry group 6. by educational attainment 7. by age and sex 8. by marital status, age, and sex 9. by usual hours worked per week 10. by sex ( annual averages)
Source:

[ ]

Minimum Wages in the U.S.
- - $5.15 since Sept. 1, 1997
- (clickable map for all U.S. territories, showing which states use lower, higher or the same minimum wage levels as the federal amount)
Source :

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"EPI works to strengthen democracy by providing people with the tools to participate in the public discussion on the economy, believing that such participation will result in economic policies that better reflect the public interest. (...) EPI was established in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. Today, with global competition expanding, wage inequality rising, and the methods and nature of work changing in fundamental ways, it is as crucial as ever that people who work for a living have a voice in the economic debate."

:
- living wage - minimum wage - offshoring - poverty and family budgets - retirement security - social security - unemployment insurance - welfare

- 40+ links to publications, tables, charts and other online resources
- 30+ links
- 30+ links

May 11, 2004
EPI Briefing Paper #151
"The minimum wage is a direct and proven method to increase the earnings of the working poor and to prevent market forces from depressing wages to an unacceptably low level."

(PDF file - 28K, 7 pages)
EPI Issue Brief
August 6, 2004
By Jeff Chapman and Michael Ettlinger

June 11, 2003 - Issue Brief #195
"The president and Congress are poised to beat an embarrassing record currently held by their predecessors of the 1980s—eight years without raising the minimum wage. Each year the federal government fails to act, minimum wage workers pay the price, as the rising cost of living erodes the value of their paycheck."

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From the *:

(PDF file - 442K, 25 pages)
June 2004
This study shows "that wage growth among minimum wage employees is actually quite robust. Using over two decades of Current Population Survey (CPS) data, these authors dispel the notion that minimum wage employees are dependent on government policies to increase their wages. The authors also examine the factors that lead to wage growth and find that higher education and job training along with a strong labor market are significant contributing factors."

(PDF file - 570K, 30 pages)
May 2004
Washington
Summary (below) by CERC ()
"(...) The near-universal conclusion of decades of economic research is that minimum wage increases diminish total employment and destroy opportunities for entry-level employees. Moreover, most of the benefits associated with minimum wage hikes accrue to non-poor families. The EITC, in contrast, increases poor Americans’ income and work-effort, without destroying job opportunities.(...)"
[NOTE: for the complete summary of the wage-based tax credits paper, click the Bulletin N°52 link]

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(PDF file - 1100K, 38 pages)
June 2003
Washington
Finance and economics discussion series, n° 2003-23
"We estimate the employment effects of changes in national minimum wages using a pooled cross-section time-series data set comprising 17 OECD countries for the period , focusing on the impact of cross-country differences in minimum wage systems and in other labor market institutions and policies that may either offset or amplify the effects of minimum wages."
- Canada is included among the 17 countries studied.
Source :

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The Effects of Higher Minimum Wages on Welfare Recipiency: Another Look - U.S.
Mark D. Turner, Alena Bicakova
February 2003

"This paper analyzes the effect of an increase in the minimum wage on welfare participation. (...) Consistent with some earlier research, we found that higher minimum wages reduce welfare spell lengths. In contrast to our initial hypothesis, we found consistent empirical evidence that long-term welfare recipients were more likely to leave the welfare following a minimum wage increase than otherwise similar short-term recipients."
(PDF file - 90K, 25 pages)
Source : (Illinois)

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"The real value of today's minimum wage is 30% below its peak in 1968, and 24% below its level in 1979"
Source:

February 7, 2001 - Issue Brief #149

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- from the

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- almost 200 links to content relating to minimum wage and living wage in the U.S.

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(PDF file - 158K, 24 pages)
by Mark Turner and Alena Bicakova
February 2003
[Adobe PDF file dated March 20/03]
Source : (Northwestern University / University of Chicago)

March 8-9, 2002, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
- incl.links to 35 papers on guaranteed annual income ("basic income") presented at this Congress
Source:
(USBIG)

Related links:
Go to the Guaranteed Annual Income Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm

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- the website of the American Libertarianism movement. This organization would privatize welfare and repeal all permits, licensing, zoning and labor laws because "they all stop people who want to work, especially minorities. (...) Private charity is more compassionate and delivers the goods better than the government welfare plantation."

International Minimum Wage Resources

United States

- January 1, 2010
- map of the U.S. ---click on any state or jurisdiction to find out about applicable minimum wage laws.
Source:

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Source:

- from, the free encyclopedia

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United Kingdom

THE UK site for statistics on poverty and social exclusion
- incl. indicators for ther UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, rural England and the European Union

Source:

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, (PDF - 518K, 46 pages)
Submission to the Low Pay Commission by and YMCA England, London,
November 2004

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(PDF file, 44 pages)
December 2003
, Bonn
"Summary : In January 2001 the Hungarian government increased the minimum wage from Ft 25,500 to Ft 40,000. One year later the wage floor rose further to Ft 50,000. The paper looks at the short-run impact of the first hike on small-firm employment and flows between employment and unemployment. It finds that the hike significantly increased labor costs and reduced employment in the small firm sector; and adversely affected the job retention and job finding probabilities of low-wage workers. While the conditions for a positive employment effect were mostly met in depressed regions spatial inequalities were amplified rather than reduced."

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- from the Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion (Paris)
- this site offers a wealth of information about minimum wages in France, Europe, OECD countries (Canada and U.S. included!)
[Click the links in the right-hand margin for links to relevant studies]
- extensive collection of information organized under the following headings: Legislation and implementation - Facts and figures - Minimum wage and employment - Minimum wage and wage formation - Minimum wage and living standard - Discussion

- links to minimum wage sites and content from: FRANCE - GERMANY - BELGIUM - SPAIN - IRELAND - THE NETHERLANDS - UNITED KINGDOM - UNITED STATES - CANADA - INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Source:

[version française]
"The Council is to contribute to the knowledge on income, social inequalities and links between employment, income and social cohesion. It is also up to the Cerc to draw up appraisals about social inequalities and redistribution mechanisms as well as to draw the government's attention and the public opinion to desirable changes and evolutions. The Cerc is to publish periodically a report on changes concerning employment, income and social cohesion, as well as specific reports dealing with issues within its field of expertise. These specific reports are initiated by the Council itself or at the request of the Prime minister."