Poverty where you least expect it — how the wage gap affects us all

By Laura Bohnert
When you think poverty, you probably start hearing a Sarah McLachlan song in your head and instinctively make a move to change the channel before you have to guiltily face the montage of emaciated children. In other words, it is pretty easy to distance ourselves from the problem. Poverty is a word that is associated with a different country — we don’t even have to see it on TV if we don’t want to. It doesn’t touch us here.
Well, maybe that isn’t as true a thought as we’d all like to believe.
The truth of the matter is that poverty does touch us here. In fact, 12.9 per cent of Canadians were considered to be living in poverty in 2011 according to Stats Canada and that number has steadily been increasing since 1990.
But, it isn’t just low-income neighbourhoods that are being affected. The problem is much more wide-spread across the nation.
The issue, of course, is being dragged into the light by the graduate students in Toronto who are currently protesting the fact that they are being forced to live below the poverty line by their teaching assistant stipends. But, graduate students aren’t the only ones who are facing this problem. The wage gap within the job market is pushing more and more workers and their families towards the poverty level.
Just as the poverty levels have been increasing since the 90s, so, too, has the wage gap. Currently, the average income of the top 10 per cent of Canadians exceeds 10 times the amount of the bottom 10 per cent.
And, the gap keeps on widening, encouraged by the widening disparity between the wages of high- and low-paid workers, and further expanded by tax inequality.
And, the shift in the labour market is only making things worse. Wages are being lessened by increases in part-time and temporary contract work.
Let’s consider for a moment Tim Hudak’s plan to cut 100,000 public sector jobs to create one million jobs — presumably of the part-time nature — in a very proactive attempt to add to the problem.
Considering the effects of this wage gap on Canada’s economy, you would think the Canadian government would be doing more to counter the situation instead of continuing to provide tax breaks to those high earners. The growing wage gap means more instability within the economy, and the increasing poverty rate means more and more individuals will be depending on government assistance programs — not to mention the added burden on healthcare (reports show poverty to cost national healthcare $7.6 billion).
All things considered, the voices of the protesting students need to be taken up by a lot more people if changes are going to be made to Canada’s economic projection.