After a State of the City speech by the mayor that focused on unemployment, poverty, and housing, London councillors voted in favour of scrapping a wage increase for the city's lowest-paid employees.
During a Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, council members narrowly voted in favour of an amendment to the city's budget that cancelled a planned wage increase to $15 per hour for casual city employees.
The increase had already been allocated into the budget by the previous council, acting on the former Liberal government's plan to bump the provincial minimum wage from $14 per hour to $15 per hour. However, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government froze the minimum wage at $14 following the provincial election.
Councillor Arielle Kayabaga said the vote to deny these workers a wage increase was counterintuitive to the message presented by Mayor Ed Holder during his State of the City address just hours prior to the meeting. During the address, Holder emphasized finding jobs for unemployed Londoners, improving public housing, and addressing poverty throughout the city.
"It was quite interesting to see the atmosphere change when we just came out of the conversation of reducing poverty in London," said Kayabaga, who added that she believes the City of London should be "setting the tone" by paying its workers a livable wage. "If we're taking the steps toward ending poverty, this was an opportunity for us."
The raise for roughly 350 casual city employees who make under $15 per hour, amounts to less than 0.1 per cent of the city's yearly budget of approximately $1 billion. Around 80 per cent of the city's casual employees are under the age of 23 and many of them are students.
"I think we're certainly a living wage employer here at the City of London. The fact that we also have jobs for students, I think, is fine," said Councillor Michael van Holst, who voted to prevent the pay increase. "We budgeted for more than we needed, and now the province said we don't need to pay that much. We should just accept this."
The majority of other councillors also cited reasons for voting against the wage bump, including being mindful of taxpayers, avoiding competition with the private sector, and respecting the policies of the current provincial government.
"I believe in paying a fair wage, I also believe market demands are the things that dictate what that is," Holder said during the meeting.
"If you're a full-time person and you are you the primary income worker, I really get that... but that's not what we're talking about here, we're talking about casual labour/student labour," said Holder, who followed his remarks by commending the city's casual workers. "But these are not the ones we're talking about today in terms of housing affordability or living wages."
Kayabaga said one in four children in London lives in poverty, and the idea that some students don't work to provide for themselves or their family is "out of touch".
"I was very shocked and surprised by this move [by council] and I would hope that we still have enough time to change some councillors' minds," she said, adding that there is still an opportunity for council to revisit this wage issue before the budget is ratified. "Let's be leaders of this atmosphere of paying people better."
The motion to cancel the minimum wage increase passed 9-6, with councillors Kayabaga, Turner, Elizabeth Peloza, Mo Salih, Jesse Helmer, Anna Hopkins voting in favour of the increase. All other councillors, including Mayor Holder, voted to cancel the planned increase.
