Oxford to become a living wage employer

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It wasn’t unanimous, but Oxford County council voted to pay all of its employees a living wage.

Oxford County directly employs two positions, a library page and seasonal students, who are paid less than the 2024 living wage for London, Elgin and Oxford, which is $19.50 per hour. To become certified, an organization must commit to ensuring externally contracted employers who provide services for at least 120 hours of labour per year pay their staff a living wage. Currently, the county pays some library staff $17.20 and seasonal workers $18 per hour.

“Given the dollar amount, I don’t have a problem moving forward with this. It is such a small group,” explained Ingersoll Mayor Brian Petrie. “I think we have some challenges in our library system, trying to attract people to that form of work.”

When it comes to students, Petrie explained their cost of living has increased, particularly with the price of schooling and housing.

“I think we need to provide leadership. One of the things we face in our society is the cost has gone up but the wages have not. These are seasonal students and investing in them can lead to…attracting better employees and convincing them this is a great place to work.”

Among those voting against the motion was East Zorra-Tavistock Mayor Phil Schaefer who said there are too many negatives in pursuing a formal certification and disagreed with raising the pay of those affected.

“I think if our wage rates for these positions were too low, the county would certainly be looking at making them more appropriate. But we haven’t done that because I don’t think they are too low and to offer an 8.3 and 10.8 per cent wage increase to a couple groups of our employees and commit to adjusting that biannually, it’s not fair to the rest of our employees.”

He added taking on the designation would be an exercise to satisfy a third party that feels the county is underpaying some staff members.

“I don’t agree with that, so I will not be supporting the motion.”

Tillsonburg Mayor Deb Gilvesey rejected the idea of becoming certified with the Ontario Living Wage Network because of the effect it would have on companies hired by the county.

“I would consider that to be government overreach if we are determining what our contractors should have or not. The director mentioned we are lagging behind in student wages, but there is also a 15.8 per cent youth unemployment rate in Ontario. It surprises me that over 18 dollars (per hour) we are behind because there seem to be a lot more students than jobs.”

She added a student wage isn’t meant to be a living wage.

“They still have support from parents. It’s not like an individual out on their own.”

The decision will not have any effect on the wages of employees who are currently above the living wage threshold and the hourly pay hike will kick in on January 1, 2026.

“This year we are employing 19 summer students; however, since this takes effect January 1, the new wage will apply to the summer students employed in 2026,” explained Amy Smith, Director of Human Resources. “We have 11 employees currently working in the library page position.”

The move toward providing a living wage will cost the county just over $42,000 split almost evenly between the library system and student employees. To become certified as a Living Wage Employer by the Ontario Living Wage Network, employers sign a license agreement and pay an annual employer certification fee. For Oxford County, it would have been $600. Staff had recommended against becoming certified.