‘If we can do it, you can do it’: Why some Ontario non-profits are boosting their lowest wages to $18 an hour — or more.

Author Brennan Doherty
Many of the organizations listed as ‘living wage employers’ by the Ontario Living Wage Network are non-profits or charities.

Why It Matters

The reputation of some social service organizations for paying low wages is at odds with a mission of alleviating poverty.

var TRINITY_TTS_WP_CONFIG = {"cleanText":"\u2018If we can do it, you can do it\u2019: Why some Ontario non-profits are boosting their lowest wages to $18 an hour \u2014 or more.. At the start of 2021, the lowest paid staff member at FoodShare Toronto, a food security non-profit, was making $15 an hour \u2014 above the provincial minimum wage, but nowhere near enough to afford rent and other essentials in Toronto.\u00a0 Shortly after Paul Taylor, FoodShare\u2019s executive director, was hired in 2017, the organization reviewed its pay grid and bumped the bottom rung by 25 percent, while the top three \u2018bands\u2019 on the pay grid didn\u2019t change at all. Then, in May, FoodShare Toronto announced it would pay a minimum wage of $22.08 an hour, the estimated \u2018living wage\u2019 for anyone livin

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