Hello Classmates!
My name is Tiffany.
My first employment experience started when I was 15 years old. I worked at the local Tim Horton’s in my hometown. At the time, the minimum wage for students was $6.40/hour. I remember thinking, at the time, how much money that was and thought I was on my way to saving tons of money. The non-student minimum wage was $6.85 or somewhere around there. In today’s day, it seems impossible to live any sort of life relying on a wage as low as those. This was my first experience in how laws impact wages. To add even further perspective, I remember when I received my first raise – 10 cents. It felt good to get a raise, but at the end of the day, when I opened my paycheque at the end of two weeks, the pay increase seemed not worth it. I learned very early on in life how important it is to strategize your future with the end goal of maximizing income.
I am interested in learning more about governance and inclusion. We have a diverse community where needs are rapidly changing. It will be interesting to learn more in these areas to apply to my day to day role in my own workplace.
Looking forward to hearing all about your first employment experiences!
Tiffany Johnston 
Hi Tiffany!
I also used to work at Tim Hortons, though it was about 5-7 years ago now, the minimum wage was $10 to $11 at that time. I was working 2-3 jobs during that period and was doing about 70 hours a week (made possible by the early Tim Horton baking shifts). Looking back, I though tI was saving and making so much money for my time input, which was somewhat true because I lived at home, however, looking back the labour I was putting in was so much more than what I am now and the return was so much less. I think they way we value and price our labour as a society is backward and wrong and personally I’m excited to learn about the ways in which employers exploit low wage workers and which laws protect them so I can be better educated and better educate those around me as well.
Looking forward to learning with you!
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Hi Tiffany,
I think that is great though, that you realized at such a young age, the importance of thinking forward and strategizing for your future. My first job experience was when I was 15 years old as well. I started at a flower shop in Ontario, and I believe I was being paid around $10/hour, but I too thought that was so much money. What province was your Tim Hortons located in?
I am excited in this course to learn more about human rights in the workplace.
Cheers!
Ashleigh
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Thank you Sabrina and Ashleigh for your comments. It is definitely interesting to see perspectives around wages and each of us having similar experiences. Being young people in the labour force, we take what we can get to build experience. I remember thinking it was impossible to find a job with no experience. Looking at the big picture, we see there are other social issues that arise from the low wages such as poverty and decline in health (working more, less sleep, less time to take personal care time).
The Tim Horton’s I worked at was in Ontario.
Sabrina – the comment you made about exploiting low wage workers is so true!
What do you think about today’s minimum wage? Too high? Too low? And, why?
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