Did You Know?

People who have paid work and still live below the poverty line are waged poor.

Of the 43,000 adults living below the Low Income Cut Off (LICO) in BC's Capital Region:

• 18,000 worked at some point in the previous year,
• 14,040 worked full time all year and
• 12,195 worked part time all year.

"Some jobs only give you enough money to survive. You can't save anything, you live pay cheque to pay cheque. You don't move up, but you can't afford to quit the job and look for new work."
-Participant in Waged Poor Focus Group, June 28, 2005

BC's Capital Region's unemployment rate is low, at 4.4% in January 2006. However, as a service sector economy, many jobs are low-paid positions in hospitality and retail.

"When you work four hours on and four hours off getting daycare is very hard. Almost all daycare is geared for 9 to 5 work."
-Participant in Waged Poor Focus Group, June 28, 2005

More than 72,000 British Columbian workers were paid minimum wage in 2000. Almost half of minimum wage workers are older than 25. This counters the commonly held vision of minimum wage workers as primarily young people. Working for a minimum wage is also an issue of gender. 63% of minimum wage workers in BC are women whereas only 48% of all waged workers in BC are women.2

"I started a job after being on employment insurance, but my cheque was held for two weeks and I was also cut off EI. I'm not sure how I made it through those two weeks."
-Participant in Waged Poor Focus Group, June 28, 2005

Hidden Costs of Work

In addition to low wages and the challenge of finding full time work, the waged poor also face hidden costs of work:

• bus pass: $65 a month
• haircut: $15
• work clothing: $100
• childcare: $155 monthly after government subsidy

The costs of work in the first month could be as much as 25% of a person's take home pay. These costs can be substantial barriers to finding and keeping work.

"I had a job with uniforms. Coming to work with a clean uniform was a big issue, but I didn't have enough money for laundry. You only have one uniform, so they expect you to do laundry every night, but that can be really expensive."
-Participant, Waged Poor Focus Group