Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jo Snyder discusses how poverty makes everybody less healthy, and recognizes the need for higher basic wages as a result. And Laurie…
wages
StatCan Debunks Small-Business Mythology
Canadian economic commentators often worship small business as the supposed source of economic dynamism and growth. This cult of small business has greatly influenced public policy, with federal and provincial…
Legislating a real raise: Minimum wages and real earnings growth
In a recent post titled, “What happened to the distribution of real earnings during the recession?”, Stephen Gordon presents a graphs that shows some significant growth in real (adjust for…
Raise Wages, Train Workers
I have been hard on our new Employment and Social Development Minister, Jason Kenney, for buying into a widespread myth about labour shortages and skill mismatches in Canada. So, to…
Fossil-Fueled GDP Growth
Yesterday, Statistics Canada reported that the Canadian economy had a month of fossil-fueled growth in August. Overall GDP was up by 0.3%, only half as much as in July but…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – thwap highlights the cycle of austerity, stagnation and decline that’s marked the past few decades across much of the developed world. And Thomas…
Part-Time Growth in a “Hamster Wheel” Job Market
Today, Statistics Canada reported that employment increased in August, although two-thirds of the additional jobs were part-time positions. The part-time rate rose to 19%, its highest level in more than…
Inflation Eats Up Three-Quarters of Wage Gains
Today, Statistics Canada reported an annual inflation rate of 1.3% for July. By comparison, it reports that the average hourly wage rose by 1.8% between July 2012 and July 2013.…
Funding Cuts to Alberta’s PSE Sector: There Are Alternatives
It has recently been reported that the University of Alberta wants to “reopen two-year collective agreements” with faculty and staff “to help the university balance its budget…” This appears to…
Average Weekly Earnings: Wages vs. Hours & Salaries
Today, Statistics Canada reported a seemingly impressive monthly rise of 0.9% in average weekly earnings, from $906.24 in April to $914.68 in May. Digging a bit deeper reveals that average…
Inflation Eats Up More Than Half of Wage Gains
Today, Statistics Canada reported an inflation rate of 1.2% for June, validating the Bank of Canada’s recent decision to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future. The rationale to…
Temporary Foreign Worker Program: Jason Kenney’s 15% Rule Selective Amnesia
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: In the House of Commons Monday, Jason Kenney denied that the Harper Conservatives implemented the 15% wage rule, the cornerstone of the scandal-ridden…
Crowley’s Red Hot Labour Market
Brian Lee Crowley’s latest column shows he’s a glass-half-full kinda guy. We shouldn’t be worried about unemployment because a) it’s old-fashioned, b) Boomers had it worse (and now they’re getting…
Use of Federal Temporary Workers Undermines Canadian Jobs and Wages
By: United Steelworkers Union | Press Release: TORONTO – “The news that RBC is replacing 45 of its employees with workers from India is just further proof that corporations and…
Alberta Liberal and Federal Liberal Cooperation? Lets Go.
I was talking to one of my friends around the the university the other day and I brought up Raj Sherman’s interview in the Calgary Herald on some form of…
Women On Top, By the Numbers
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we ask: Are more women making it to the top in Canada? And what does that mean for the 100 per cent? The…
Boost the Minimum Wage, Boost the Economy
A version of this article appeared today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. (This version includes references to the debate plus charts and graphs from data specially tabulated from…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The CCPA looks at Statistics Canada’s latest income data and finds that inequality has been growing steadily across the country over the…
Women’s earnings in BC lag national average: report
by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives compares the earnings of women in BC to those in the rest of Canada.…
Welcome to the Wageless Recovery
The Harper government likes to remind Canadians that we’ve done better than most developed nations in bouncing back from the global economic crisis. But digging into the data shows why…