GTHA workers struggle with anxiety over insecure jobs

YorkRegion.com
April 15, 2016
Lisa Queen  

Renee McKnight and her husband, Lloyd, had high hopes for their future when they moved to York Region from New Brunswick five years ago.

Instead, McKnight, who has a college diploma in office administration, and Lloyd, a trained carpenter, have struggled as they cobbled together jobs to keep a roof over the heads of their family of four.

More than once, they have had their utilities cut off or restricted at their rented Newmarket townhouse because they haven’t been able to pay their bills.

McKnight has had eight jobs in five years, including a four-week contract, running a day care from her home, which she gave up because she didn’t have enough clients to make the venture economically viable, part-time minimum wage retail jobs where her bosses declined to give her hours flexible enough to accommodate a second part-time job and a coffee shop that required she work split shifts early in the morning and late at night.

Lloyd’s employment has been somewhat better and he now has a job doing piecework as a subcontractor.

McKnight is now working with her husband as a general labourer.

They earn less than $50,000 a year combined and pay almost $20,000 a year in rent and utilities.

Without benefits, the couple has, at times, struggled to provide medication for their children, a 17-year-old son in high school and a 19-year-old daughter.

“It’s been a battle. At this point, between the two of us, we’re almost in bankruptcy because the cost of living is so high versus the wage. We’re just floating. That’s what I say, we’re just floating on water. If we step too far, we’re going to sink,” McKnight said.

“At the moment, we go paycheque to paycheque and the paycheque fluctuates. I always say we’re a paycheque away from homelessness because if we, for whatever reason, run out of work and we can’t find something immediately, then we could be on the street no problem.”

The family is not alone, according to a report from the United Way of Toronto and York Region and McMaster University being unveiled Friday at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.

The study looks at the impacts of precarious or insecure employment on individuals, households and communities in York Region.

Drilling down on York information builds on a six-year study and two previous surveys conducted across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

With more than 40 per cent of York residents surveyed living with some degree of unstable job prospects, such as working irregular hours, on short-term contracts or without benefits, uncertain employment is not just a Toronto problem, co-author Michelynn Lafleche told York Region Media Group.

Precarious employment stretches across all income levels, but has more dire consequences for low and middle-income earners, Lafleche, the United Way’s director of research, public policy and evaluation, said.

“York Region is sometimes thought to be immune from these kinds of challenges that we see in urbanized areas, in cities in particular. But what our data shows… (is) it isn’t a downtown problem, this job precarity problem. It’s a problem for York Region as well and it is indeed a problem for our (GTHA) region overall,” she said.

“It is not just urban, it is a suburban problem. It is spread across the region and it is spread across industries. It’s not just people working in service industry jobs where they are working very erratic hours, always part-time hours, always on shift schedules and things like that. Those people are precarious indeed. But it is actually spread across the manufacturing industry, the knowledge sector and the service sector, as well as the non-profit sector.”

Among the findings, the report shows levels of precarious employment in York are in line with the GTHA average, more than half of York workers earning low and middle incomes are suffering from anxiety that is interfering with their personal and family lives and 63.6 per cent of precariously employed workers in the region are having trouble securing child care, which is limiting their ability to work.

On the other hand, although a small sample size limited the researchers’ ability to draw firm conclusions, York workers appear more likely to have work pensions than the GTHA average and, in some areas, York workers in precarious jobs are earning 10 per cent more than average.

“We were able to show that it’s not the income that is always the problem. You can earn a middle income and still be insecure and still have poor social outcomes that look like your counterparts that have low income,” Lafleche said.

“What we’ve learned is that security makes the difference for particular kinds of social outcomes, like anxiety about work interfering with people’s personal and family lives. Health and mental health is affected as well.”

Employment insecurity is a complex problem, Adelina Urbanski, the region’s commissioner of community and health services, said.

She will attend Friday’s announcement being made at a meeting of the Human Services Planning Board. The board brings together leaders in human services to find ways of improving the health and well-being of residents.

“Job precarity impacts us all — our families, our health and our economy. By addressing precarious employment, we can create a more stable and secure environment for our workers and a better quality of life in our community,” Urbanski said.

“The Human Services Planning Board is looking at what they can do to change the difficulties posed by unstable employment.”  

The region’s goal is to foster an environment that attracts and grows good, well-paying jobs, regional chairperson Wayne Emmerson said.

“One of the priorities of our four-year strategic plan is economic vitality,” he said in a statement.

“As a result, we are actively focusing on creating an environment where all residents can thrive and make ends meet and we are pleased to partner with the United Way to make this happen.”

The report concludes with recommendations that call on governments, employers, labour and communities to work together to improve supports for workers with precarious jobs.