Sign the Petition: Scrap The ‘Fair’ Wage Policy.

The ‘Fair Wage Policy’ places an unfair burden on taxpayers by increasing the City’s procurement costs.

Toronto’s “Fair Wage Policy” is one of the most unfair policies the city has. The FWP dictates that employers who contract with the city must pay their employees a prescribed schedule of wages to their employees. This dramatically increases the cost of programs and construction.

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition has urged the City’s Executive Committee to eliminate the Fair Wage Policy in effort to provide stability and predictability to the annual budgeting process and to lower the burden on taxpayers in the city.

The Fair Wage Policy was intended to “level the playing field”, but the playing field has only been leveled for a small number of beneficiaries, to the detriment of every taxpayer in Toronto. This policy distorts the labour market by increasing Toronto’s labour costs and decreasing competition among potential bidders to municipal contracts.

“The mandated requirement to pay higher than market-based wages artificially reduces the competitiveness of most businesses,” our spokesman explained to the Committee. Eliminating the fair wage policy would help to maximize savings in almost every contract the city has, including the decision to contract out garbage collection west of Yonge St.

“The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition believes that market forces should define ‘fair wages’,” our spokesman added.