I am fortunate to possess a rare commodity these days, a part-time, work-from-home job doing something that I am passionate about. I haven't talked specifically about it here on my blog before, but I work as the Medicine Hat Community Mobilizer for Public Interest Alberta.
On September 1, when the province raised the minimum wage to $9.40/hr, and only $9.05 for people who serve alcohol, we sent out a media release with information derived from Statistics Canada. The media release focused on the sad fact that Medicine Hat has the highest percentage of employed people earning less than $12/hr; $12.25 is the living wage in Alberta. A living wage is defined as: the amount of income an individual or family requires to meet their basic needs, to maintain a safe, decent standard of living in their communities and to save for future needs and goals.
Normally I can't say enough good things about Medicine Hat, I'm happy to live here and proud of our city, but this is one thing we should be embarrassed about. There are 7200 people, 20% out of the 36,100 employed people in Medicine Hat, that are earning less than $12/hr, compared to the provincial average of 13.9%. Here is the link to the various statistics compiled.
What we would really like to see is people letting the Alberta Government know that the minimum wage policy is not a living wage, and it needs to be changed.
As a result of this media release, I was interviewed by a local radio station, quoted in an article in the Medicine Hat News, and interviewed for the CHAT tv news, hence this post title. Here it is:
Good job! I'm so proud of you, Alison! PS You look great on camera!
ReplyDeleteYou did a GREAT job! So composed and well spoken!
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