Allison MacDonald podcast transcript

							        Income Disparity and the Impact on Middle and Low Income Workers


Subject expert: Allison MacDonald, a Registered Social Worker who is a social planner in
                Calgary. She is also a member of the Alberta College of Social Workers.

The following is a transcript of an Alberta College of Social Workers podcast recorded January
31, 2008. Click here to hear the audio version.

INTERVIEWER: How does income disparity impact workers who are in the lower and middle
income brackets?

ALLISON: Despite the economic boom that we're currently experiencing in Calgary, there is a
growing income gap between the rich and the rest of Albertans. Actually, the middle class is
becoming smaller. The hourly wages that the middle class earn haven't been able to keep up
with inflation. Real wages actually fell between 2000 and 2005.

The impact that has had is, with increased inflation, people are spending far more on their
housing costs. For instance, there are 20,000 Calgarians with a family income of less than
$15,000 that are paying 50% of their income on housing costs. Typically one shouldn't spend
more than a third. That erodes their ability to either participate in other things such as recreation
and of course eliminates any ability for them to have any savings.

INTERVIEWER: How does this affect their quality of life?

ALLISON: The poor have over the years become poorer so certain segments of the population
really aren't able to participate in what many of us take for granted in society; leisure activities,
some basic needs. People are living in some very substandard housing situations. There is a
segmented middle class because real wages are not keeping up with inflation. They are actually
working more. So they're putting in more hours of work just to stay the same.

INTERVIEWER: How does this affect our society as a whole? Other Albertans who might not see
themselves fitting into that description or situation you described.

ALLISON: I think most Albertans value full participation in society so we want people to not have
to spend an excessive amount of time working. We want people to participate in their
communities. Participate with their families. Participate in democratic processes and their
community associations.

We're experiencing a high level of stress. A recent report pegged Calgary as a community that
is reporting a great deal of stress and that has some negative health implications and other
physical issues.

INTERVIEWER: How does income disparity affect your work as a social worker and your ability to
help other people?



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ALLISON: My practice is a social planner. My current role is as a funder in the City. We fund
social agencies to provide services. What many of them are reporting or have reported over the
last few years is, rather than being able to provide some of their core services, what clients are
presenting are basic needs issues. They can't get to some of the other social issues. For
example, young parents who need to build their parenting skills are faced daily with issues of
poverty.

We've experienced the last couple of years erosion in the pay of the staff that are providing
social services. Social programs have been chronically underfunded in this province. What
we're finding is that staff working for human service organizations are starting to compete with
clients for affordable housing. They are using food banks. In this current economic climate
there's a huge staff retention issue. Social agencies, some really good agencies, are reporting a
25% turnover so that affects their ability to offer quality programs.

INTERVIEWER: So people who've traditionally seen themselves or identified others as using
social services; not only is it harder for them to access those services but people who've
traditionally not needed them but are now seeking them out are also not able to access them. Is
that true?

ALLISON: Exactly. When we think of social services or human services, I think we need to think
of the whole spectrum. That includes child care. Affordable, accessible child care is apparently
second to affordable housing in terms of a barrier. For many women, their labour market
participation is affected by their ability to get affordable child care.

Other social services are, as you said, services that we might only use once or twice in our
lives, perhaps to help with our aging parents. These are becoming less available just because of
the turnover in staff. A project that I'm currently working on is addressing the human resource
crisis in the human service sector.

INTERVIEWER: Allison, do you see the situation getting better or worse?

ALLISON: Income disparity for low income and middle income workers is getting worse. We're
seeing no indexing of any of the government social assistance programs. Minimum wage is
inadequate. People have to work more to stay the same.

Something that I'm hopeful about is social workers and people in the human service sector are
getting better at a collective response. We're using better information. We have really solid
research to present the case and I think we're building strong collectives across the sector to
make the case to the government about the inadequacy of income support; the inadequacy of
funding to social programs.

We're advocates of the vulnerable, typically on an individual basis but I think we're getting better
at using good research to build public awareness about how income disparity is affecting more
than just a small, marginalized segment of the population.




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People are becoming more aware of the impact on their lives of income disparity. There are a
number of coalitions that have been built over the last year that are addressing issues of poverty
and are addressing issues of the middle income earner.

In Calgary, for instance, there's a coalition called Vibrant Communities Calgary that is promoting
a notion of a living wage. A minimum wage is inadequate. Businesses such as the Calgary Zoo
have made a business decision, a really good business decision about providing a living wage
to staff. What they've experienced is a dramatic improvement in staff retention. It's also
improving the quality of their staff. Rather than many people in the not-for-profit sector requiring
a second job, people can actually have one job and have a reasonable standard of living.

INTERVIEWER: Can you define what a living wage means?

ALLISON: A living wage in Calgary means for an individual, someone not supporting a family,
gets $12 an hour with benefits, or $13.25 an hour without benefits. So in this hot economy that's
barely a living wage but that allows someone to meet their basic needs, have a reasonable
standard of living and perhaps have some savings to anticipate future needs.

INTERVIEWER: So a living wage basically means having not only the basic needs but those
things that traditionally contribute to good mental health; physical well-being and so on. I’m
thinking of recreation. Is that correct?

ALLISON: Absolutely.

INTERVIEWER: You talked earlier about the situation getting worse. The gap is growing.
Research tells us that. What has to change in terms of social policy to make things better?

ALLISON: I think the first requirement is that we look at increases in income. A wider adoption of
a living wage rather than the minimum wage that we currently have. Indexing of any social
programs or funding to social agencies that need to be indexed every year so that organizations
can provide reasonable salaries and retain staff.

Affordable housing is a key issue in Alberta which requires participation by all three levels of
government. Recently there was the release of a ten-year plan in Calgary. There is
homelessness and that really, really requires participation by all levels of government. The
business community has gotten onboard because it has interfered with people's ability to work
in Calgary, which has a huge labour market crisis.

We need to revisit the child care plan that was proposed by the federal government. There are
inadequate amounts of accessible, safe, affordable child care and that really is impacting middle
income earners, who aren't typically eligible for subsidy. They are paying a disproportionate
amount of the money on child care.

We need to look at more creative employment strategies. There's a project that's starting in
Calgary where they are taking low-income women who are currently on social assistance - lone
parent families who are living in poverty. In order to help them build good employment and to

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provide child care positions, they are taking fifteen women and helping them develop a family
day home. Creating good jobs that provide a good quality of life for women are critical. This has
the added benefit of creating additional child care spots. I think we need to advocate for
increased funding in the human service sector.

One project that I am currently working on with a number of local funders and representatives
from all levels of Government is a project to address the human resource crisis in the human
service sector. There is an income gap between staff providing services in the not-for-profit
sector and staff providing similar services through the government. That gap can be anywhere
from 25 to 40%. How can we narrow that gap so that people providing similar services in the
not-for-profit sector are closer to living wages?

The government needs to put more value in the importance of our social infrastructure. We’re
living in a province that has ample resources to look at how we value our social infrastructure.
Currently there's a lot of discussion about physical infrastructure and investing in the physical
infrastructure of this province. I think we need to introduce into that conversation the importance
of social infrastructure.

INTERVIEWER: Allison, how important is it that the provincial government recognize that social
infrastructure is as important as physical infrastructure?

ALLISON: We currently live in a province where there's ample money to reinvest in our social
infrastructure. Our social infrastructure is all those things that provide support across the
spectrum to Albertans. It's not just people who are living in poverty but people who require
good, affordable child care. Resources to families and to aging parents; those programs have
been chronically underfunded.

With the increase in the cost of living, salaries have become eroded. Rents in Calgary in
particular have become excessive so we really need to attend to that social safety net. There is
an opportunity for us to work collectively. We can build some coalitions. I think what's critical in
building a case for social infrastructure is to attempt to use our current research to appeal to all
Albertans as to what the impact on all of us is when there are people who are living on the
margins of society.

I think Albertans value children being able to fully participate in society. There are segments of
the population that can't do that. We need a strong labour market with the changes in
demographics resulting from baby boom retirement. We need to know that everyone's
participating fully; that they have good opportunities for education and recreation and a full
quality of life.

I would encourage people to think about what particular social issue really matters to them.
Seek out good information about that and ask elected officials about their commitment to
particular social issues. What specific commitment they are making to social infrastructure; the
social safety net.




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Family and Community Support Services is a program that's cost-shared between the provincial
government and municipalities. The program requires a significant infusion of money so that
would be something that Albertans across the province could ask their local officials about.
What is their commitment to increase the contribution to that preventative social program?




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