B.C. employers started paying higher minimum wages as of yesterday. The mandatory minimum wage went up Tuesday to $10.25 per hour, putting it on par with Ontario.
Servers in bars and nightclubs, who typically receive tips on top of their hourly wages, will not get the same increase. The minimum wage for servers went up to $9 per hour.
To mitigate the impact on business, the B.C. government has been hiking the hourly minimum wage in increments since May 1, 2011, when it went up from $8 to $8.75, then to $9.50 on November 1, 2011.
Minimum wages for waitresses and waiters in bars was $8 per hour in 2011. It went up to $8.50 in May 2011, and $8.75 in November 2011.
“By listening to employers, giving them lots of advance notice, and staging the increase in small increments over the past year, we were also able to help businesses plan effectively for the change,” said Margaret MacDiarmid, minister of labour and citizens services.
Prior to the increases, B.C. had the lowest minimum wage in Canada. The recent hike puts it on par with Ontario. Only Nunavut has a higher minimum wage: $11 per hour. The lowest is now the Yukon at $9.27 per hour.
Many minimum-wage earners are students working at their first job.
Business groups like the BC Chamber of Commerce oppose increasing the minimum wage, saying it would hurt businesses in areas of the province where the economy is still sluggish. (See “Chamber says minimum wage hike is too much, too fast” – BIV Business Today, March 17, 2011.)
In Minimum Wage: Reframing the Debate, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) estimates that a 10% increase in the minimum wage across all provinces would cost Canada between 92,300 and 321,300 jobs as a result of hiring freezes, slower employment growth and direct job cuts.
But Jim Sinclair, president of the BC Federation of Labour, applauded the increase.
“Today’s increase to $10.25 is good news, and long overdue,” he said.
“Unfortunately, even at $10.25, workers in B.C. don't reach the poverty line. We are looking for a commitment by government to increase the wage again six months from now.”
