Labour anxious over future economics

“People just simply can’t survive. And, you know, in any decent way,” noted Dawn Hemingway, Professor Emerita for the School of Social Work at UNBC.

That ship righted itself somewhat in the years subsequent, says Stanford.

“For the last 2 or 3 years, we’ve seen wage increases of 4 per cent, quite commonly. So what that means is over that period, we were able to repair the damage that was done by the outburst of inflation in 2022.”

In fact, according to StatsCan, the average first percentage of wage increase in a private-sector negotiated contract was 3.1 per cent and 3.1 per cent in subsequent years for the duration of the contract, while the public saw a 4.1 per cent increase during the first year of a contract and 3.7 per cent in subsequent year. Unfortunately, inflation current is set to rise by 4.2 per cent or higher.

“Unfortunately, now with the oil prices, shooting up, because of the war in the Persian Gulf, this is going to happen all over again because inflation is rising in Canada and it’s going to go further. That means, future collective bargaining is going to be all the more difficult,” says Stanford.

And those are wages negotiated contractually. What about those on minimum wage?

“Looking at what would have to be a living wage for people just to be able to have basic necessities. And it is way higher than even the minimum wage. So I don’t believe people can live on the minimum wage. You’d have to do multiple jobs, many, many things, to be able to live on the minimum wage. I can’t see how you could,” says Hemingway.

The experts say the near future will see prices for rudimentary goods increase even more quickly than wages.

by Cheryl Jahn

Labour anxious over future economics

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