Tuesday, March 07, 2023

How Much Did The 'Smoothening' Of The Living Wage Policy Save Us?

ThePriceOfTheirPetThings
TheValueOfNothingVille


Zac Vescera, writing in The Tyee, notes that Vancouver mayor Ken Sim said:

...(M)ost city employees were already paid more than the 2023 living wage...

So.

Given that, what did Mr. Sim's council's super-secret decision to 'take rate implementation into consideration' when it took inflation out of the equation of the CoV's Living Wage Policy save, we the taxpayers of Vancouver.

Well...

Who the heck knows:

...The Tyee reached out to Sim’s office for additional comment, including what sticking with the living wage program might have cost, but did not hear back by publication time...


Gosh.

Is it really possible that the mayor not know the dollar amount saved by our fair city?

Or.

Is it possible he doesn't want us to know?

Now why might that be?

Well, if the number is actually small, which it is not unreasonable to assume given the mayor's claim that the majority of majority of city employees are already making the living wage, is it possible this really was done, not for the benefit of taxpayers, but for, say, the private companies that hire their own employees to fulfill contracts for public services?

If you get my drift.


______
Another nugget in Mr. Vescera's Tyee piece is the confirmation that, in addition to Christine Boyle, councillor Pete Fry also voted against the smoothening that could cost low end workers as much as $5,000 this inflation-laden year.
Subheader?...It's a mangling of one of Rare Mair's favourite sayings, originally uttered by Oscar Wilde, about certain political types knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing...The good Mr. Sim has already demonstrated that this is an adage he is familiar with when it comes to library funding.


.

2 comments:

NVG said...

A bit of background from THE City itself on ... the benefits of a ...

Living Wage Policy

https://vancouver.ca/search.aspx?q=Living+Wage+Policy

specifically:

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2018-05-01-living-wage-one-year-anniversary.PDF

'Since the introduction of the policy, eight contracted service employees received a living wage who would not otherwise have been paid one. These employees are part of the contracted graffiti removal team and the contractor has reported reductions in absenteeism, turnover and recruitment costs as well as increased morale and productivity. The additional cost accrued in 2017 as a result of the living wage policy were $35,280.'

RossK said...

Very interesting.

Thanks for the digital digging NVG!


.