Poor Torontonians get sicker, die younger despite a decade of efforts

A new report offers a guaranteed "living wage" as one possible way to raise the health of low-income Torontonians.

Thestar.com
April 20, 2015
By David Rider

Despite a decade of efforts to bridge the “health gap,” the poorest Torontonians continue to suffer more disease and die younger than their more prosperous neighbours.

The city’s lack of success in breaking that miserable link, says medical officer of health Dr. David McKeown, means it is time to raise incomes, and health standards, through a guaranteed “living wage” for Torontonians.

“We do it now through social assistance and minimum wage but we need to do more to raise the health of people at the lowest end of the income scale,” he said Monday after the release of “The Unequal City 2015,” a Toronto Public Health study.

It updates a 2003 report and concludes that “overall, health inequities in Toronto have not improved over time.”

That worrying trend has continued in conjunction with another highlighted in the Star’s Divided City series - income polarization, with Toronto transforming from a mostly middle-income city into an island of downtown wealth surrounded by increasingly poor pockets of suburb.

And it follows other research showing that poverty is as much a problem in Toronto and other cities as in the past, despite reduction strategies and ambitious argets.

The new report states that, of 21 health indicators tracked by the city, four worsened for low-income earners while 16 remained about steady. There was improvement in one category.

“We have to pay attention to people’s incomes if we can expect them to be healthier,” McKeown said.

If all groups enjoyed the same health status as top-income earners, the study states, 932 fewer Torontonians would die prematurely each year.

Some other findings:

Men in the lowest income group continue to remain 50 per cent more likely to die before age 75.

The poorest women in Toronto are 85 per cent more likely to have diabetes - a percentage that has grown in the past decade.

Young women aged 15 to 24 in the lowest income group remain twice as likely to be reported with chlamydia infection.

Babies born to the poorest families remain 40 per cent more likely to have low birth weight.

At next Monday’s health board meeting, McKeown will call for a renewed focus by city departments on reducing health inequities, more frequent tracking of indicators and for the board to endorse a “living wage.”

The report defines that as the hourly wage required for a household to cover the cost of necessities, based in the real cost of living. That hourly wage for two Toronto working parents with two children is $18.25, according to a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Ontario’s $11 per hour minimum wage rises to $11.25 on Oct. 1.

A city committee will study the idea of a living wage this summer, while city council will review Toronto’s poverty reduction strategy.