Amy Chen

A platform funded by both the federal government and Province of British Columbia is helping busy families find nannies, babysitters, house cleaners and other domestic helpers who are willing to work for less than minimum wage.

Founded by family physician Dr. Alexandra Greenhill Mybesthelper.com allows employers to offer work starting at just $8 per hour, which is well below the minimum wage for all provinces and territories.

The Vancouver, BC-based company has received federal grants through the opaque IRAP program and NSERC, and provincial taxpayer dollars through New Ventures BC program.

In one job posted on mybesthelper.com titled job posting titled “Kind Family needs loving Babysitter On-call in Brampton”, a family is offering a job at $8 per hour to a babysitter to stay home with children aged six and eight, while the parents go out for a night out.

The minimum wage in Ontario is $11.40 per hour, and employers of “domestic servants” must abide by the province’s Employment Standards Act.

In another job titled “Babysitter in Toronto needed for a great Family,” a family is offering work four to five hours a day for a couple of days during the week at $8.00 – $10.00 per hour.

Another family in Mississauga, Ontario is looking for an on call babysitter for their one-year-old at $9-$11 per hour.

A family in Edmonton looking for “babysitter for a couple of hours on the odd weeknight or weekend” is offering $10-12 per hour, when the minimum wage in Alberta is $12.20 per hour.

Labour rights activists expressed their dismay at the very existence of mybesthelper.com.

“The federal government’s idea of innovation is finding innovative ways to speed up the race to the bottom,” John Timmins of Labour Rights Watch said in email. “Ottawa allocated $279.8 million for the highly exploitative temporary foreign worker program in their ‘innovation’ budget, and now we find that they spent even more taxpayer dollars on a platform that makes it a breeze for unethical employers to find precarious workers at below the minimum wage.”

“Dr. Alexandra Greenhill is a family physician and one would expect someone in her profession to demonstrate kindness and compassion,” Timmins added. “But it seems that she has no qualms about profiting off exploitation.”

Labour Rights Watch called on the federal and provincial government to investigate mybesthelper.com and take legal action against both the platform and the employers using it.