Based on in-depth interviews with 70 hospital support workers in Vancouver, Canada, this article describes how the contracting out of their jobs to multinational corporations has had deleterious consequences for these workers, their families, and the health care system. Privatization and outsourcing resulted in a steep initial wage reduction for hospital support staff, decreasing by up to 50% from approximately $18 to $20 per hour to between $9 and $12 per hour—with much weaker job benefits. Despite recent wage increases as a result of Hospital Employees’ Union—led contract negotiations, workers still earn lower hourly wages than they did before contracting out and report challenges making ends meet. The concluding discussion presents the implications of these findings for the sociology of work and health and proposes some policy reforms for mitigating the negative consequences of privatization. The article also describes the beginning of a living-wage movement in Vancouver that has emerged in part as a result of this decision to outsource these hospital support jobs.
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