Rising Up: The Fight for Living Wage Work in Canada

Description

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. 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