Food First NL and PROOF have co-authored a submission to the 2022 Newfoundland and Labrador Minimum Wage Review Committee, titled “The Minimum Wage: A Powerful Tool to Reduce Food Insecurity.”
Background
Food insecurity takes a serious toll on people’s physical and mental health and on provincial health care services and budgets. According to 2019 estimates from Statistics Canada, 17.8% of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians lived in a food-insecure household. Experiences range from worrying about running out of food and/or limiting food selection (marginal food insecurity), to compromising in quality and/or quantity of food (moderate food insecurity), to missing meals, reducing food intake and at the most extreme going day(s) without food (severe food insecurity).
Research shows that food insecurity is an income issue. Many people simply cannot afford to regularly purchase enough nutritious food, even if they live in a place that has food readily available and even if they have a job. In fact, roughly half of food-insecure households in Newfoundland and Labrador rely on income from wages and salaries. Having a job is not enough to protect someone from food insecurity.
To address food insecurity, it is necessary to ensure jobs pay enough and provide support for those in precarious employment. The large proportion of working households that are food-insecure suggests that their employment circumstances are insufficient for affording basic needs, making policies that reach low-income households in the workforce critical for reducing the provincial rate of food insecurity.
Recommendations
Raise the current minimum wage to a more adequate level as the baseline moving forward. With the cost-of-living increasing and an existing $5.65/hour gap between the minimum wage and 2019 living wage estimates for St. John’s, food insecurity will only increase without increases to income.
Make the minimum wage setting process a part of a larger concerted government effort to address food insecurity. This could include policy actions to support workers (e.g. better employment standards) and a guaranteed, liveable basic income.
Recognize that any decisions made on wages are decisions that directly impact food insecurity. Actions to improve the financial circumstances of low-income households are necessary to reduce food insecurity and its burden on health.
Read the full submission.
If you require an alternate format for this submission, please contact hello@foodfirstnl.ca
