Now that's a tidy raise

Minimum wage to rise, Liberals to fight child poverty - "Sorbara commissioned University of Toronto professor Morley Gunderson to study the impact of a $2 hike. Gunderson, paid $24,000 for a sobering 50-page report that took him six weeks to complete, found such a dramatic rise in the wage could cost even more jobs than the 66,000 the finance ministry had estimated." [Toronto Star]

Before I go nuts with math here, a disclaimer: none of what I'm about to spew out is is by way of impugning the quality or accuracy of Prof. Gunderson's study, or his deserving to be properly compensated for key economic policy advice.

But $24,000 divided by 6 weeks = $4,000 per week, which begs the question:


In other words:

• 40 hrs @ $100/hr;
  
• 20 hrs @ $200/hr;
  
• 10 hrs @ $400/hr;

I think it's safe to assume that the professor didn't manage to squeeze in an extra full time job moonlighting for Queen's Park. I suppose $200/hr is probably a decent ballpark guess at the effective wage paid for his study.

Anyhow, putting it a (few) other way(s):



To earn $24,000 today, you'd have to clock:

• 3,504 hours (88 weeks full-time) @ 2003's $6.85 pre-Liberal minimum wage;
  
• 3,000 hours (75 weeks full-time) @ today's $8;
  
• 2,341 hours (59 weeks) at 2010's proposed $10.25;
  

Finally, Prof. Gunderson's 2005 U of T salary (excluding benefits): $140,970.32, for an effective wage of $67.77/hr assuming 52 weeks at 40 hrs/wk.