Rising Up traces the history and international context of living wage movements across Canada. This compassionate and astute collection of essays shines a light on alternatives to a neoliberalized labour market, examining union- and community-based approaches to labour organizing, migrant labour, and media (mis)representations, among other key topics. Canada has one of the highest rates of low-wage work among advanced industrial economies. In a labour market characterized by the ongoing fallout from COVID-19, deepening income inequality, job instability, and diluted union representation, the living wage movement offers a response and solutions.
Author(s): Bryan Evans, Carlo Fanelli, Tom McDowell
Publisher: UBC Press
Year: 2021
Contents
Figures and Tables
Resisting Low-Wage Work
The “Standard” Employment Relationship: Low-Wage Work
The Comparative Political Economy of Low Wages
Labour Justice
Media (Mis)Representations and the Living Wage Movement
The Fight for Living Wages in Canada
The Emergence of the Living Wage Movement in Canada’s Northern Territories
Getting by but Dreaming of Normal
The Living Wage and the Extremely Precarious
Working for a Living, Not Living for Work
The BC Living Wage for Families Campaign
Challenging the Small Business Ideology in Saskatchewan’s Living Wage Debate
Resistance and Alternatives
The Living Wage Campaign in Hamilton
Why Business-Led Living Wage Campaigns Fail: The Case of Calgary, Alberta, 1999–2009
The Low-Wage Economy in the Age of Neoliberalism: What Can Be Done?
Contributors
