Thursday, July 20, 2017

Employing a Question of Labour

Some parties here in Ontario, Canada, are whining about a proposal by the Kathleen Wynne government to raise the minimum wage from $11.40 to $15 per hour.

It's not just small businesses that are worried about the admittedly substantial in-one-shot increase, but big ones too.

What? Why?

How?

In 1981, while I whistled while I worked at CGE (Canadian General Electric) my efforts were rewarded with a rate of $8 per hour ($20 today). In 1984, as I did some last minute saving-up for school, the Radio Shack warehouse paid me over $6 per 60 minutes. (In both cases I was not 'union'. It's a brain-busting case, I know.)

Dirty little secret: Today, 2017, many if not most companies of industry pay "staffing" agencies 17 - 19, sometimes more, dollars an hour per employee. These middlemen turn around and pay workers our now gorgeous minimum wage.

Go figure it out.


2 comments:

Jon said...

And the staffing agencies download almost all the risks onto the hiring businesses and rake in their guaranteed margin... nice work if you can get it.

Simon St. Laurent said...

You are right. And they take care of the annoying stuff like CPP.

The government should do something about those staffing agencies; limit the percentage of what portion can be skimmed. They help keep the working poor.

Companies must undertake some social responsibility. Instead they close their 'human resources' departments in order to save money and increase the bottom line.

My bottom line is this: Many industrial companies Already pay more than $15 an hour per employee. Their argument about not being able to afford such a jump in the hourly rate is just pissing in the wind.