Yellowknife employers paying a living wage to their workers can now be identified by decals displayed in their places of business.  Eleven local employers are being provided with the decals.

The decals are the Employer Recognition element of the Alternatives North campaign to persuade more employers to pay employees a wage that has been calculated to meet the basic costs of living in Yellowknife.

“In 2015, there were 1,700 people in Yellowknife earning less than $20 an hour—most made less than $16,”  says Suzette Montreuil of Alternatives North, “So a living wage is a solution to poverty for a large group of people.”

Analysis contained in an Alternatives North 2015 report established a living wage rate of $20.68 per hour for each adult in a two parent family with two children.

“Workers earning a living wage can meet basic living expenses, have more money to spend locally and contribute more to the tax base. Staff retention and work-place productivity are increased and recruitment and training costs are reduced for employers.”

The Employer Recognition Program recognizes employers who are ‘champions of living wage’, that is “employers paying living wage to all full-time and part-time employees, including post-secondary students, and contract workers, and championing the living wage within their sector/industry and within the community.”

Alternatives North and its living wage partners are continuing to promote the adoption of living wage through the use of the decals and pamphlets explaining the idea of a living wage.  Other employers who would like to apply to be Living Wage Employers can contact Alternatives North.

See the media release and attached list of living wage employers, and an Alternatives North pamphlet outlining the living wage program and campaign.