Half the people living in Huron and Perth counties earn less than living wage, research says
New research has found that half of the people living in Huron and Perth counties are earning less than the region’s living wage.
A living wage is the amount an hourly worker “needs to earn to cover their family’s basic everyday expenses,” according to the United Way’s Social Planning and Research Council. This can include “food, housing, utilities, childcare and transportation.”
A 2015 report set the living wage for a two-parent, two-child household in both counties at $16.47 per hour.
Ontario’s minimum wage is even less — $14 per hour, and a hike set to raise it to $15 per hour was recently halted by the Ford government.
The stark numbers are part of “How Much is Enough: The Impact of Low Incomes on Families in Huron and Perth Counties,” a report being completed by Signum Insights on behalf of the United Way. The report is set to be released in 2019.
The research team shared their preliminary findings with a crowd of about 40 community stakeholders and politicians at Rural Talks to Rural 2018: a conference on contemporary challenges and the future of rural living currently taking place in Blyth, Ontario.
According to Joel Armstrong, a Signum Insights consultant working on the report, people who earn below the living wage can struggle with things like housing, access to food and transportation.
This form of financial instability tends to fly under the radar since most who suffer have access to homes, something people rarely associate with struggle. But people could have enough to pay rent and keep the lights on while not being able to afford groceries, new clothes or grooming products.
The priority is usually “rent, transportation and bills” first, Armstrong told the audience. Everything else comes second.
Armstrong shared one graphic example of how one interview subject described his own diet.
“One participant told me ‘We eat shit so we are shit. It’s not very complicated: garbage in, garbage out’,” Armstrong said. “We just feel like shit all the time because our food is garbage.”
Some of the other problems people may face include mental health issues, strained interpersonal relationships, isolation, social exclusion, all results of living on minimal means.
What comes next?
“If I earn more than a living wage, why should I care? And if I do care, what should I do about it?” asked Susanna Reid, a member of the United Way’s Social Planning and Research Council.
Attendees spent the afternoon in break-out groups discussing income and food insecurity, housing and homelessness, physical and mental health inequities and transportation.
The day ended with a group discussion, where action-focused feedback was handed back to researchers for their final report.
“How Much is Enough: The Impact of Low Incomes on Families in Huron and Perth Counties,” will be published after a series of public consultations in 2019.
The Rural Talks to Rural 2018 coverage is brought to you by Market Street Strategies. Follow this week’s coverage on Facebook (where we’ll also be streaming live) and on Twitter. Join the discussion by using #R2R2018!
