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S-CAP to hold minimum wage hike protest

The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty is holding a rally and march Aug. 14 to mark a provincial day of action in support of a $14 an hour minimum wage.
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The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty, seen here earlier this year, plan to hold another protest Aug. 14 to mark a provincial day of action in support of a $14 an hour minimum wage. File photo.
The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty is holding a rally and march Aug. 14 to mark a provincial day of action in support of a $14 an hour minimum wage.

They'll be meeting in Memorial Park at noon and then walking to Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci's office.

This is a follow-up to their action on March 22, when they delivered blocks of ice with the current minimum wage — $10.25 — frozen in them to both Bartolucci's office and that of Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas.

The minimum wage has been frozen since 2011 by the Liberal government while living expenses continue to rise, creating even more difficulties for the 534,000 minimum wage workers in Ontario, the organization argued.

A press release from the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty said raising the minimum wage to $14 an hour would allow single minimum wage workers working 35 hours per week to earn 10 per cent above the low-income measure.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the minimum wage put forward by some business owners and politicians, S-CAP said.

The percentage of minimum wage earners who are over 35 years old continues to rise, up from 17 per cent in 2004 to 27 per cent in 2012.

This is not just an issue for young people but affects working people much more generally, the press release said.

This is increasingly not only a problem for those working for very small businesses with small numbers of workers. The percentage of minimum wage earners working for corporations with over 500 employees has also increased to almost half.

A 2013 report by the Canadian Labour Congress found that Canadian corporations are hoarding nearly $500 billion in unused funds, rather than using that money to re-invest to help create jobs or provide higher wages for their workers.

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