Overview of Living Wage Research Projects. Bryan Evans, Ryerson University. Living Wage Leaders Gathering May 5 th, 2015 Ottawa

Transcription

1 Overview of Living Wage Research Projects Bryan Evans, Ryerson University Living Wage Leaders Gathering May 5 th, 2015 Ottawa

2 Policy Engagement at Multiple Levels of Governance: A Case Study of the Living Wage and Minimum Wage Policy SSHRC Partnership Development Grant to 2017: CCPA Ontario Unifor Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty reduction Mennonite Central Committee Corporate Knights Tamarack Income Security Advocacy Centre Columbia Institute/Centre for Civic Governance BRI International Campaign 2000 Social Planning Council of Greater Sudbury The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation Social Planning Toronto Living Wage Canada

3 Key Question How can new policy ideas that challenge existing orthodoxies and propose alternative ways of conceiving policy options be tested and developed so that they contribute to policy innovation?

4 Goal #1 Foster an intellectual and organizational foundation to support sustained research on the dimensions and outcomes of policy engagement by NGOs operating at multiple levels of governance, as well as build upon ongoing links to nonacademic audiences in the community, business, and government sectors by establishing a formal research and engagement partnership.

5 Goal #2 Draw upon multiple partners to identify and mobilize research participants, participant observation opportunities, and other data collection opportunities that will allow the team to develop a comprehensive, empirically based description and analysis of the dimensions and strategies currently invoked by living wage/minimum wage policy communities.

6 Goal #3 Promote knowledge transfer and utilization for audiences that include university-based researchers; non-university researchers in union, community, and business organizations; social activists; journalists; government policy analysts; and senior public service and political decision makers.

7 Goal # 4 Use a range of strategies (workshops, videos, web-based resources, focus groups, and social media) to share research emerging from this project and acquire an understanding of how the public, opinion leaders, and decision-makers understand the potential of living wage/minimum wage policy proposals to regenerate social and economic progress within the context of a shifting labour market. A series of workshops to be held across the province will bring the diverse set of policy actors interested in living wage/minimum wage issues together to share perspectives.

8 Purpose Engage in original data collection and analysis. Information exchanges at conferences, and post-research knowledge mobilization that includes plans to research and develop accessible materials based on written, online, and social media platforms. Understand how the efforts of NGOs to develop research, foster social dialogue, build networks, and broadly mobilize ideas among the public, policy communities, and decision makers actually translates into changes in public policy. How do advocates in these policy communities direct their attention and demands simultaneously to policy makers operating at several levels of governance including federal, provincial, and municipal levels of government. Identify the ways in which living wage/minimum wage (LW/MW) advocates flexibly formulate their overarching vision into specific proposals that reflect the policy capacity of each level of governance, and the relative effectiveness of their messaging and mobilizing strategies, in influencing policy decisions at a time when concerns about a low-wage economy are growing.

9 Theoretical and Policy Context Broader interest expressed in recent years on the part of several provincial governments in poverty reduction strategies. Success has been uneven and often determined outside the parameters of the communities proposing meaningful policy reform. This project investigates the emergence in Ontario of a constellation of policy communities that has roots in the antipoverty and social inclusion campaigns of previous years, but which is defining and presenting its overarching proposal for improvements in living standards for the lowest-paid workers in society in innovative and multi-faceted ways. The targets are multi-varied: policy makers operating at multiple levels of public governance as well as private sector employers. The original contribution to social science will be in deepening our knowledge of how collaborative governance arrangements can be constructed, and how a relatively peripheral and diverse policy community can exert a unified influence on policy.

10 Current Research Projects Underway

11 Current Research Projects Underway 1) Impact of Adopting the Living Wage in Hamilton Project Leads: David Goutour, Wayne Lewchuk and Tom Cooper 2) Survey of Ontario Non- Government Organizations Advocating for a Living Wage Project Lead: Bryan Evans

12 Projects Underway 3) Young Adults and the Potential Transition from Minimum to a Living Wage: Retail, Fast Food and Day Care. Project Leads: Meg Luxton 4) Implementing the Living Wage: What Happens when Labour Standards are Raised? Project Leads: Bryan Evans, Tom Cooper and Marjorie Griffith Cohen

13 Projects Underway 5) Challenging the Low Wage Economy. Lead: Stephen McBride 6) The Living Wage Movement in Canada: History and State of the Movement Lead: Bryan Evans

14 Projects cont d 7) Towards a Living Wage for All: Who is advocating for Illegalized Migrant Workers? Leads: Harald Bauder and John Shields 8) (Tentative) A Living Wage Policy for the City of Toronto : Exploring Opportunities, Limitations and Prospects Leads : Mohammad Araf and Bryan Evans