Surviving The Fall, 7

Sometimes, Gentle Reader, just coping in the workplace is all one can do for keeping one`s head above water and still attached to the rest of one`s body. I have complained randomly and bitterly about my awful employer, which is our public health care system and their complete disregard to the dignity of their peer support workers and other contractors. This month we have been given our first wage increase in over eight years. I suppose I should feel grateful, and in a way, I am. It is only two dollars an hour above what we have been making, but for me this could easily translate into an extra two thousand a year and given my low income, that is still nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand they are doing this with a minimum of fanfare and I think with good reason. Next month, in my province, the minimum wage goes up from 11.35 to 12.60 an hour. Which is to say that after this month, barring a compulsory pay hike, we would be making sixty cents less than the new minimum wage. Which is also to say that our employer had to wait till they were under duress from the government, till they had a gun to their head, before they would finally budge and raise our wages a little. So now, instead of earning sixty-five cents above the minimum we are going to get a whopping dollar forty! Wow! Still not a living wage, but for my employer to pay us a living wage that would mean having to, on paper anyway, declare that they actually respect their mental health peer support workers, that they do not stigmatize us, that they do not look down their fine thin nostrils at us as damaged goods that ought to be grateful that we could even clean their toilets for them (which, thank heavens, is not one of our professional duties) I retire in less than three years. I will never know the privilege of working for a living wage. This has never happened for me, ever in my working life. Working hard for a living is one thing, if there can be even a reasonable expectation of fair remuneration. But when you, like me and like many other Canadians, have been left stranded through no fault of our own in low-paying employment that really limits and restricts our life expectations, and even our life expectancy, then we are touching on the scandalous. And that our public health care provider, whose first interest in their employees and contractors should be in helping assure and secure their health and wellbeing, should with a gun to their heads just give us an extra two lousy bucks an hour and we should be grateful for it, that is just obscene! I am not going to go on whining, for the simple reason that it`s bad for my skin. I also have much to be grateful for. Living in BC Housing guarantees me a lifetime of cheap and affordable rent. I can still go on vacations. Even after paying off Revenue Canada the almost sixteen hundred bucks they are wanting from me this year. Most of this is CPP (Canada Pension Plan) contribution. Because I am a contractor, my employer is off the hook for paying half of my contributions. Which is to say, they are already saving money on our backs and they can afford to pay us decently. But enough for now. Even if the world could be on its way out, I will still combat my whining with gratitude, and just be thankful that I have a roof over my head and meaningful, if badly paid, employment.