While the resource boom has been lifting Saskatchewan out of obscurity these past few years, there are some negative consequences. The sudden increase in population, for example, is putting immense pressure on housing. This must make it extremely difficult for those who can’t afford to buy a home.
Just five years ago we rented a two-bedroom apartment in Regina for $600 a month. We were fortunate to leave the rental market and buy a home at the time we did, because prices took off shortly after. From 2006 to 2010, rents have risen by 43%. A two-bedroom apartment now costs around $1,000 a month. Renting a house will cost at least $1,500.
This is a sad reality for the working poor, whose wages have not increased accordingly.
I read an interesting book last month about a journalist who tried to live off of jobs paying close to minimum wage in the U.S. This was in 1999, back when the economy was booming and jobs were plentiful. She had everything going for her – she was intelligent, healthy and white. She allowed herself to keep her car, but all living costs had to be covered by her working wage which was typically around $7 per hour.
While the low-wage jobs themselves were physically and emotionally taxing (in one case, forcing her to quit due to burn-out), finding affordable accommodation posed the biggest challenge.
Particularly in states like Minnesota where the economy was red-hot, she found herself either in cheap motels or apartments in shady neighbourhoods where her safety was compromised. While finding work in this labour market was easy, it wasn’t always easy to find a location that was close enough to keep her gas costs down (back when gas was half the price it is today).
Many low-wage earners, she found, live in squalid conditions (some live in their vehicles or on friends’ couches). Many can’t even afford the food calories necessary to sustain them, given the physical nature of their work. Then there was the fear of management whose primary role, so it seemed, was to destroy any remaining sense of worth these low-wage employees had. In this way, the author concluded, management could maintain control and prevent any organized backlash.
We might like to think this is another example of American injustice that can only occur south of the border, but there are a number of similarities to Saskatchewan today. We’re experiencing an extremely low vacancy rate (Regina has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country at 0.6%), peak housing prices, an affordable housing shortage, and a minimum wage that, when adjusted for inflation, is about the same as $7/hr in 1999.
For those who are stuck in minimum wage jobs, rental costs can eat up over 60% of one’s income. Even at a $15/hr job, rental costs would devour almost half of after-tax income. That’s not leaving much to live on, especially if you’re a single parent.
I would hope Canadian employers treat their minimum wage employees with a little more respect than in the book I read, but it’s hard for me to judge as someone who spent his minimum wage years working for a small-town newspaper (actually, I got paid $6.25 an hour!). But I suspect there’s a general lack of respect for minimum wage workers, most of whom work in the service industry.
During my wife’s brief work experience at Tim Horton’s, she found that management cared about two things: employees taking discounted donuts home and employees accepting tips (a no-no at Tim’s, because minimum wage is clearly sufficient). She also found that customers our age, in their thirties and forties, tend to show the least respect toward their servers (can’t even blame the baby boomers!)
While this kind of work environment may be brushed off by a teenager working his/her first job, it’s not a pleasant feeling for immigrants who were respected professionals in their home countries or for those who simply don’t have the education or skills to get better paying jobs. Many of the workers working with my wife were single mothers.
My former boss, who held a rather high-profile position in our province, had the habit of tipping employees working at fast food restaurants. It wasn’t a bad idea.
Those that get paid the least often work the hardest. Too often we inadvertently snub those in the service industry, those who deserve more respect and much more pay.
Good Book: “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
