Living wage policy for health authorities has strong support from public -- poll

Living wage poll backgrounder

Backgrounder (1/2) to March 27, 2008 news release Make hospital contractors pay family-supporting wages to cleaners and dietary workers - poll

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Poll highlights

  • Nine of ten British Columbians think health authorities should require contractors to pay family-supporting wages to their workers.
  • Four out of five say hospital contractors who don't pay decent wages should not receive tax dollars.
  • 87 per cent believe that no full-time worker in a B.C. hospital should need to have a second job just to make ends meet.
  • 78 per cent support a policy that would require any corporation contracted to provide public services in B.C. to pay living wages to their employees.

The telephone survey of 607 British Columbians was carried out between March 9 and 15, 2008 and is accurate to within +/- 4.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20. It was conducted by Viewpoints Research for the Hospital Employees" Union.

These questions form part of a longer survey on a range of health care issues. Here are the detailed questions and results.

All companies who have contracts with B.C. health authorities should be required to provide safe working conditions and to pay wages high enough to support a family

  • 91.3 % overall agreement (45.3 % strongly agree)
  • 6.3 % overall disagreement (0.5 % strongly disagree)
  • 2.5 % don't know/refused

As a taxpayer, I don"t want to see health care dollars spent on hospital contractors that don’t pay decent wages to their employees.

  • 81.4 % overall agreement (28.0 % strongly agree)
  • 14.0 % overall disagreement (2.8 % strongly disagree)
  • 4.6 % don’t know/refused

No one working full-time in a B.C. hospital should have to take a second job in order to make ends meet.

  • 86.6 % overall agreement (37.2 % strongly agree)
  • 11.2 % disagreement (1.5 % strongly disagree)
  • 2.1 % don’t know/refused

In the United States and Britain, some local governments have brought in policies that require any private company that receives a contract to provide public services, to pay their employees a living wage. In B.C., would you support or oppose a similar policy?

  • 77.5 % total support (35.7 % strongly)
  • 15.2 % total oppose (3.3 % strongly)
  • 7.2 % don`t know/refused