BREAKING Average hourly wage in Canada now $34.95: StatCan
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
Anti-poverty organization Oxfam called Monday for governments to impose a one-time 99 per cent tax on the world's billionaires and use the money to fund expanded production of vaccines for the poor -- part of an effort to combat global inequality widened by the coronavirus pandemic.
The ranks of the super-rich have swelled during the pandemic thanks to ample financial stimulus that pumped up stocks, the group said. Meanwhile, poor countries have suffered more than their share from COVID-19 because of unequal access to vaccines, which have mostly gone to rich nations, Oxfam said in a report aimed at informing discussions at the World Economic Forum's online gathering of political and business leaders this week.
"The pandemic has been a billionaire bonanza," Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said in an interview. "When governments did the rescue packages and pumped trillions into the economy and to financial markets in order to support the economy for all, what happened is a lot of it went into the pockets of the billionaires."
Vaccine development has been one of the pandemic's success stories but Bucher said they've been "hoarded by the rich countries" seeking to protect pharmaceutical monopolies.
Since the pandemic erupted in March 2020, a new billionaire has been minted almost every day. The fortunes of the world's 10 richest men -- including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates -- more than doubled to US$1.5 trillion, making them six times more wealthy than the world's poorest 3.1 billion people, Oxfam said.
Meanwhile, 160 million more people have been forced into poverty during the pandemic, Oxfam said, citing numbers from the Forbes 2021 Billionaires List, Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Databook and the World Bank.
Oxfam called for rich countries to waive intellectual property rules on COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to expand their production.
A one-off 99 per cent tax on the 10 richest men's pandemic windfalls could earn more than US$800 billion and be used to fund that effort and other progressive social spending, the group said.
The money "would be able to pay for vaccines for the whole world, have health systems for everyone," Bucher said. "We would also be able to compensate for the damage of climate change and have policies that address gender-based violence," while still leaving the 10 billionaires $8 billion richer than they were at the start of the pandemic, she added.
It's not all doom and gloom. The group noted that the U.S. and China, the world's two biggest economies, are starting to consider policies aimed at countering inequality, such as raising tax rates on the rich and taking action against corporate monopolies.
"The point is extreme inequality is not inevitable and this is why it brings us hope," Bucher said.
Oxfam has long sought to inspire debate at the annual gathering of business and political elites typically held in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. The pandemic forced organizers to put off the event for a second year, instead holding virtual sessions where political leaders will be joined by business executives and campaigning groups such as Oxfam.
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the U.S. South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.
The National Post is reporting that Rex Murphy, the pundit and columnist who hosted a national call-in radio show for decades, has died.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.