Prepare to have less take-home pay starting Jan. 1

What else is new.

The decrease in take home pay is due to the indexed items of CPP and EI as opposed to new taxes. Both the employee and the employer will have the pleasure of paying more to support the system.

Correct me if I'm wrong here. But with less people working than before and more people taking their pensions, there is less being put into the EI and CPP funds, so to make up for the shortfall the gov needs to raise the rates to keep both EI and CPP programs afloat. If that is the case, the rate increase makes sense.

That is the case. But they had actually wanted to raise EI rates even more, but because so many people aren't working they didn't want to create the drag on the economy. Of course they could just raise the corporate tax, but their corporate overlords won't let them.

That is true more so for CPP than EI. To receive EI you must be part of the work force population and thus retirees do not have an impact. The increased cost comes for the cost of living adjustment in the payouts. Depending on how draconian you wish to be the cost of EI could be reduced.

CPP is directly related to population demographics. The leading edge of the boomer bubble has reached retirement age and is drawing CPP. It is predicted that shortly there will be 3 retired people for every working person. (I hope there are a bunch of immigrants or a new baby explosion to support me) The rate will not change from 4.95% for both the employee and the employer, but the taxable earnings has increased for a net total dollar increase.

"Canadian corporate overlords"

Sorry, Andy, that dog just don't hunt.

No shit, everybody knows the Americans have the corporate overlord club cornered.

Like every year. The problem is that they will eventually lack people's money. Here in Quebec, beside the CPI, there are a lot of fees going up (electricity, healthcare premiums, permits of all sort, etc) and the PST +1% (9,5% !!), +3-5% municipal taxes, payroll taxes, public pensions going over 10%, etc. More than half my pay check goes to the government and I have ever less access to services. Don't get ill here if you can't pay for a private clinic or if you have a doctor friend !

Yeah Proc... things are tough all over...

My cable just went up, electricity is going up, municipal taxes and my next water/sewer bill will be higher this coming year too. Seems you can't walk into a grocery store for just "a few things" and not drop $40 in the process.

And now I'll have slightly less net pay to cover it all. To be expected though.

When we first moved here, wages were less than now. No trouble making ends meet. Wages have gone up a bit (not much) but HUGE trouble making ends meet. Life has become significantly more expensive in the 4 years that I live here.

Would a lot of the increased cost come from your children getting older? As they age they want more expensive clothes, toys, etc plus the grocery bill goes up at the same time. My kids have left home and our costs seem to be relatively flat. The bank of Mom & Dad is still functioning, but the drain seems to be a bit less.

Or we could blame your increased costs on BC taxes.

Judging from the line ups at Timmies, plenty of people still have lots of money
to burn.

Would a lot of the increased cost come from your children getting older? As they age they want more expensive clothes, toys, etc plus the grocery bill goes up at the same time. My kids have left home and our costs seem to be relatively flat. The bank of Mom & Dad is still functioning, but the drain seems to be a bit less.

Or we could blame your increased costs on BC taxes.
They were 7 and 9 then, and 11 and 13 now, so that doesn't make that much of a difference.
I just can't afford to put them in gym class anymore for instance ($200/mo), and the regular cost of food has gone up too. As have ALL the bills. Property tax, water, hydro... Tv, internet and home phone is raised overall even when bundled. Even of voicemail. They want me to pay $7/mo for something I don't use, so I cancelled that. Also, just the regular bank account went from $3.95/mo to $6.95 now, only to maintain it. It's the little things that count, no?

I've seen the same thing and I believe it has more to do with habitual behavior and people seeking a sense of normalcy than it has to do with disposable income.

Before my father-in-law died he compared the newscasts about the post-Obama-election economy to the German newsreels after D-Day.

The news casts since January 20, 2009 have constantly beat a drum about how things are getting better or that projections show 'next year' will be so awesome and, meanwhile, more and more people are losing their jobs and the truth is that things are getting steadily worse.

My father-in-law compared that to Die Deutsche Wochenshau that had the German military first winning a decisive victory at Normandy, and then beating the hell out of the Allies at Paris, the Wehrmacht kicking Allied butt in the Battle of the Bulge, and then making the Allies bleed for every inch they moved across the Rhine. It was amazing how all of those 'victories' moved closer and closer to Berlin.

And now it is no less amazing how each days great economic news takes us one step closer to collapse.

Not like we haven't seen such BS before...