The team at Balanced Good is proud to announce that we’ve been certified as a Living Wage Employer through the Ontario Living Wage Network.
While we have always paid a living wage to our employees, it feels important for us to publicly make this commitment as a way of modelling the change we hope to see in the non-profit and charitable sector, and living our values out loud.
Committing to adequate compensation policies in our work is a commitment to advancing gender equity for our staff and in our communities.
Staff working in community non-profits are underpaid relative to other sectors, and much of the work tends to be precarious and without benefits. A report by the Ontario Nonprofit Network, “Bridging the gap,” notes that this this sector-wide phenomenon can largely be attributed to the “care penalty” where wages in the charitable sector tend to be lower because charitable work is often associated with “women’s work” and devalued care work.
Compensation for women and non-binary folks is lower than for men working in the nonprofit sector, and that wage gap is experienced more commonly among women who are racialized, disabled, Indigenous, or trans. Commitment to fair, decent and adequate compensation for our staff is a practical way to disrupt this inequity.
The Living Wage Certification is also a tangible way for employers to tackle “working poverty.” Having a full-time job is no longer enough to protect someone from poverty – take for example food insecurity, 60% of food insecure households in Canada have their primary income as salaries and wages, meaning the majority of food insecure households are working. While small increases have been made to minimum wage in recent years, these increases are insufficient. We believe that all workers deserve a living wage and our communities deserve enough resources to thrive, not simply get by.
We are proud to join a growing network of employers that are committed to pay a living wage for our employees. If you are interested in learning more about the Living Wage in your area, and how you too can become a certified Living Wage Employer, check out: https://www.ontariolivingwage.ca/
