One major reason is that their low-paid parents have to spend so much of their income on rent and utilities, leaving little even for such basics as food and clothing, and there is no public housing available to them.A Queen’s University study by Richard Chaykowski found that millions of jobs in Canada don’t pay enough to keep a family out of poverty. One in six Canadian workers earns less than $10 an hour, one in 25 earns the minimum wage or less. Aside from the large number of low-paid full-time jobs, there have been growing percentages of part-time casual and temporary jobs with irregular hours, poor working conditions, few benefits, and little chance for advancement.Chaykowski says that a third of all working Canadians earned less than poverty wages. Carol Goar of the Toronto Star puts it this way: “As things now stand, millions of workers are not covered by employment standards and are not eligible for jobless benefits. And temp agencies can skim off half a client’s wages. Workers can be rented and returned like spare parts.”1Let’s take a closer look at how workers in Canada have been doing in our growing economy.
