Visit facebook.com/livingwage
I don’t know what a living wage is in Prince Rupert.
I do know that if you don’t like the wage you are earning, you can upgrade your education and learn some job skills that will make employers willing to pay more for your services.
As an employer I have sifted through stacks of resumes from people with minimal to no job skills. Not only a lack of education, but a lack of ability to get along with co-workers, poor skills dealing with the public, and lack of a work ethic. These people will be forced to accept minimum wage jobs.
It is almost impossible to find a qualified employee. I will have a job opening later this year and is is likely that it will go unfilled due to lack of a suitable candidate for the job. And I am not looking for a rocket scientist, just someone who can show up to work on time, has basic literacy and computer skills, is presentable and can deal with the public, and can follow simple instructions and work without being told what to do every moment of the day.
No one owes you a living. If you want to earn a good income it is up to you to make yourself desirable to employers.
The sad thing is, going to school and taking courses, doesn’t make you a suitable candidate for a job. Once a lazy clueless douchebag, always a lazy clueless douchebag. Having a ticket, or a course or whatever, doesn’t make you a better person, nor does it make you capable to do the job better than someone without it.
[quote=“gum”]
No one owes you a living. If you want to earn a good income it is up to you to make yourself desirable to employers. [/quote]
Respectfully, the question was not about how to get a better paying job or being ‘owed’ a living.
The question was ‘what is a living wage’?
So, imagine a single parent who has to pay child care, mortgage, bills, etc out of their wages…what would those wages have to be in order to survive?
As an employer, I can understand that you may be resistant to raising the minimum wage. I also infer from your post that you may be willing to pay a bit more for good staff.
But this thread is asking what is a living wage…this does not depend upon anything except the cost of living.
Think about it - if we want people to work for a living, they need to be able to live while they are working.
[quote=“bubbasteve735”]
Once a lazy clueless douchebag, always a lazy clueless douchebag. [/quote]
Now THAT is just plain ignorant!
It’s not ignorance, if a person wants to be lazy, and not give a shit about their job, they’re going to do it wether or not they’re qualified for it. And if that’s the type of person they are, then it’s not going to change, unless it has to.
You can’t have a life on minimum wage, You can’t even have a life on two dollars over minimum wage, and that’s working full time.
[quote=“bubbasteve735”]
And if that’s the type of person they are, then it’s not going to change, unless it has to.[/quote]
So, you admit that a ‘lazy clueless douchebag’ can change. Good to hear.
[quote=“bubbasteve735”]
You can’t have a life on minimum wage, You can’t even have a life on two dollars over minimum wage, and that’s working full time. [/quote]
THIS is the point of the question in the first place. So, if you can’t survive on $8/hr (current minimum wage…not training wage…minimum wage), and if you can’t survive on $10/hr (being proposed by many - including Rupert’s - MLAs) - what is a wage you can survive on?
ive never thought about what i can live on just about how i can make more money
Add on top of that, most places don’t offer full time work. It’s part time, so you have to get at least three shitty jobs to make up for it. What kind of qualifications are we talking about here? The biggest sector in rupert, is the retail sector. I don’t see many ads for jobs elsewhere, that require schooling. So what kind of training would Gum propose I do? I get all trained up, and have to leave town anyways, because of lack of jobs here. My best friend has his welding ticket, I think he’s onto the A ticket now. but he can’t find work here. He’s top in his class. And loves what he does. What more would you want from a person? But he has to go to Alberta to find any work at all.
So gum, what kind of job posting is going to be open? What do I need to do to get that job? I or anyone else looking to go somewhere?
I was once a single parent surviving on $10 per hour, I made it work. It is possible to have a roof over your head, and food in your tummy. Of course there are luxuries that had to be forfeited - going out drinking, buying new clothes every payday, and putting off the new car.
Many retail sector jobs are willing to pay more for employees that are qualified, but if you have no work experience or training in regards to the job you are applying for - expect min wage, and just deal with it until you are worth more. 
You can cure lazy stupid douchebags. You can’t cure stupid…
I’m worth more but it seems people who offer me ‘real jobs’ don’t want to pay me what I’m worth or they will but they want me to wear another 50 hats on top of it.
You want to pay me 12.00-20.00/hr and manage your entire IT department and 60 servers… fuck you.
I would imagine for a single person living on his own about $12.00 to $15.00 per hour would be an amount to provide a decent living. That would mean having a clean and safe place to live, decent healthy food, money for clothes, and some spare spending money. Not a great life but OK.
For a couple with kids two people earning the above amount again might provide for the basics without much extra. The extra money required for kids would be offset by the savings on rent and various other expenses which would be shared rather than each person having to pay for things separately.
For a single parent I can’t see how they can make a go of it without the sort of income a professional would earn. One more reason to do what you can to make a marriage work.
I have noticed a lot of people in this town do things backward. It is supposed to be finish high school, then get some advanced education or career training, then find someone you can put up with for the rest of your life, get married, save some money, then have kids. Around here it seems to be have a few kids and don’t finish high school, have a succession of partners who come and go, holding down menial jobs along the way. Soon you are in your thirties fat and working for minimum wage. Perhaps some planning ahead would have been in order.
Unfortunately that’s somewhat of a self-perpetuating cycle, but then again that’s more of a social issue than a employment issue.
On topic, I would think the 12/h is probably about right for a decent live-able wage. I think in many cases there are more problems with having to work multiple part-time jobs due to the employers wanting to avoid giving out benefits. But that being said, I think it’s definitely possible to find an employer willing to pay you above minimum wage if you’re willing to put the effort in. Businesses that do that are the ones that retain good employees, the ones only willing to pay minimum seem to have some pretty high turn-over.
It is hard in prince Rupert i have been working since i was a kid bought my
house when i was twenty paid for it 16 years ago have two kids,our income
is over 140.000 a year and we still say we wish we can win a lottery.When
we came to prince Rupert we were poor but we were happy everyone worked
hard and as kids we in joyed playing with our friends out side,i guess it depends
what kind of life style you want and contempent level it is a struggle for many
and hopefully god will bless our town again like the good old days.
if your income is 140k a year and u think u need more…something is wrong
Yeah really… if you cannot make it on 140k a year what the heck is going on…
lol
Actually with 140K per year, a large chunk of it will go to income tax, then there are various other taxes etc. If you have kids, medical and dental expenses etc, soon there will not be much less. So it might seem like a lot of money compared to many people’s income but it can evaporate pretty fast.
even if its 140k pre tax, your looking at around 75k after tax
my dad makes less then that after tax and we live pretty comfortably
3 cars, a nice house, basically anything we need
so if he cant make it on 140k pre tax, there is issues there
i would want more than 140k a year simply because i want my kids to post secondary schooling . and money for travelling etc. you shouldn’t look at what you need to do to “get by” but what you need to succeed