Alberta lone province to adopt rate
Workers’ rights activists across Canada are continuing to push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage despite little interest in it so far from provincial governments.
Labour unions and anti-poverty activists in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have launched campaigns calling on their governments to raise the minimum wage rate to at least $15. To date, all of the governments have refused to do so or have remained silent on the issue.
So far, Alberta is the only province in Canada to adopt a $15 minimum wage.
The province’s NDP government confirmed last year that it would raise the minimum wage rate, now at $12.20 an hour, to $15 on Oct. 1, 2018.
Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray said a $15 minimum wage would help lower poverty rates and reduce the burden on social support programs. “We know that raising that minimum wage is going to support real families, families that are currently having to go to the food bank to support themselves,” Gray told the provincial legislature.
“Albertans who work full time should be able to live with dignity, and that means being able to afford rent, food and transportation for their families,” she added.
Irene Lanzinger, president of the BC Federation of Labour, said she would like to see B.C. follow Alberta’s lead, but adds that she is not optimistic that the current government will do that. The B.C. government has committed to tying minimum wage increases to the consumer price index, and for 2016 and 2017, to also raising the rate a little more to account for strong economic growth.
“They have a plan in place to have us at $11.25 by this September. I don’t expect anything more from them on that front,” said Lanzinger. “Anything less than $15, you are either very close to the poverty line or below it,” she adds.
The federation began pushing for a $15 minimum wage two years ago. While it has not been successful so far in convincing the provincial government to adopt a $15 minimum wage, Lanzinger said the organization has public support. She notes that a recent poll the federation conducted found that 75 per cent of British Columbians agree with a $15 minimum wage.
She added that this support could be important in the province’s May 9 election, especially with the opposition NDP committing to a $15 wage rate.
The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is also campaigning for a move to $15. It has partnered with an organization called Fight for $15 and Fairness to organize rallies in the province. During provincial government pre-budget meetings in January, the OFL called on the government to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all workers, with no exemptions.
To date, the government has not said whether it plans to raise the minimum wage rate beyond making annual indexation adjustments or eliminate any exemptions.
In Quebec, proponents of a $15 minimum wage say they will continue to campaign for it despite the provincial government recently rejecting the idea in favour of a four-year plan to gradually raise the general minimum wage rate from $10.75 an hour to $12.45 by 2020.
The government will begin the phase-in on May 1 by raising the general minimum wage rate to $11.25 an hour. Quebec Labour Minister Dominique Vien said the phased-in minimum wage hike will eventually put the minimum wage at 50 per cent of the average wage in the province.
“The progressiveness and the predictability of the increase will allow the government of Quebec to improve the purchasing power of employees, while respecting the capacity of Quebec businesses to pay,” she said.
Proponents of a $15 minimum wage do not think the government’s increases go far enough.
“The announced increase is clearly insufficient and indecent for people working at minimum wage,” said François Vaudreuil, president of the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques, a labour union in Quebec.
Business groups, however, said they were pleased that the government rejected the $15 proposal.
“We all agree on the need to alleviate poverty and help those in need; however, an increase of nearly 40 per cent to the minimum wage, in a short time frame, is not the most effective solution for workers or employers,” said the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“Requiring business owners to increase the wages of their least experienced employees by nearly 40 per cent would put immense pressure on them to do the same for their more senior staff. With a profit margin of barely three per cent, for example, the proprietor of a regional inn, corner restaurant or small bakery would either have to slash employee work hours, significantly raise prices or even cut jobs just to keep their business going,” it added.
The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), an independent think tank, warned the government that a rapid increase in the minimum wage to $15 could hurt workers in the province’s rural areas, where the economy is not as strong.
“In the 25 most-affected RCMs (regional county municipalities), between 56 per cent and 41 per cent of the workforce would be at risk,” said Mathieu Bédard, an economist at the MEI, in a recent report. “Low-income adult workers in rural regions would be the primary victims of this increase,” he added.
Instead of high minimum wage rates, business organizations have generally advised governments to raise the basic personal amount used to calculate income tax deductions, saying it would put more money in workers’ pockets while not hurting businesses or jobs.
In New Brunswick, an organization called the Common Front for Social Justice Inc., wants the provincial government to move to a $15 minimum wage.
Next month, the New Brunswick government will raise the minimum wage from $10.65 an hour to $11.00. It is also considering changing the method it uses to set the minimum wage by possibly tying it to the consumer price index. So far, the government has not indicated an interest in moving to a $15 minimum wage.
In Nova Scotia, the provincial NDP has tabled a private member’s bill that, if passed, would require the government to gradually raise the hourly minimum wage rate to $15 by 2019. The minimum wage rate is currently $10.70 an hour ($10.20 for those with under three months’ experience). On April 1, it will rise to $10.85 ($10.35 for inexperienced workers).
So far, the bill has only passed first reading and, as a private member’s bill, may never become law.
Citing research showing that 60 per cent of minimum wage workers in Canada are over 24 years old, NDP MLA Marian Mancini said critics who claim minimum wage increases mostly benefit teenagers are wrong. She also presented research she said shows that any job losses from higher minimum wage rates would be limited to teens and small numbers of young adults.
“As many economists have pointed out, people at the bottom of the income spectrum, because they earn so little, need to spend all of the money they earn. When their salaries are increased, they tend to spend more money, thus boosting the economy,” she added.
So far, the government has rejected her argument, adding that affordable housing, accessible daycare and public education would be more beneficial.
Despite the unwillingness of provincial governments beyond Alberta to adopt a $15 minimum wage, activists say they will keep campaigning for it.
Achieving the milestone would bring them a step closer to their ultimate goal of ensuring all workers are paid at least a living wage, which is a rate of pay high enough to cover basic living expenses in a particular community. For Toronto, the living wage was estimated to be $18.52 in 2015. For Vancouver, Lanzinger said it is $20.68.
“I would love to have our minimum wage at the living wage, but we just felt that there were some steps along the way to that and the $15 minimum wage was one of them,” she said.
