B.C.’s lowest-paid workers will get a $1.30-an-hour raise June 1 on the way to earning at least $15.20 in 2021, Premier John Horgan announced on Thursday.
The NDP government’s plan to increase the minimum wage by 34 per cent in less than four years drew a mixed response from businesses, analysts and anti-poverty advocates.
Richard Truscott of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said small businesses will feel the pinch.
“While bigger businesses can figure out some economies of scale or increase prices in the market because they’ve got some power, for small businesses, they’re simply left in the squeeze.”
Truscott said smaller operators will have to find savings by dipping into training budgets, cutting benefits, scaling back employee hours or forgoing hiring altogether.
“Simply put, there’s adjustments that have to be made,” he said. “So, yeah, we were certainly hoping they would have had a longer phase-in period for smaller business beyond the 2021 deadline.”
The Together Against Poverty Society in Victoria, on the other hand, wanted to see the wage increases take effect much sooner. “What we had hoped to see was that they would take advantage of the really low unemployment rate right now to front-load some significant changes,” said David Huxtable, an employment standards legal advocate at the society.
“We were hoping to see $15 an hour by 2019.”
He said the government’s plan means that caregivers and other low-wage earners will continue to struggle to survive — particularly in expensive cities such as Victoria. “The cost of living is going to eat up most of those changes between now and 2021.”
Frank Bourree, a hospitality and human resources consultant, said a number of employers in Victoria are well ahead of the government, having already boosted wages in order to recruit and retain workers.
“When you’ve got 3.3 per cent unemployment, that’s virtually full employment, so wages are going to go up organically simply because there’s a shortage of people out there and employers are going to have to pay more to attract them.”
Bourree, a principal with Chemistry Consulting, cited a recent decision by Butchart Gardens to increase its starting wage for seasonal employees to $15 an hour in an effort to attract workers.
“So this is not an Earth-shattering move,” he said. “I think it’s quite a reasoned approach on behalf of the NDP. You’re going to hear complaints from some food service operators and some retail operators. They’re going to have to make adjustments to their menus and their pricing.”
Under the NDP plan, the minimum wage will rise to $12.65 from $11.35 effective June 1. It will rise again on June 1 in each of the next three years. The Fair Wages Commission has recommended $13.85 in 2019, $14.60 in 2020 and at least $15.20 in 2021.
Horgan said the wage boosts will benefit 400,000 workers across the province.
The plan acts on recommendations of the three-member Fair Wages Commission that delivered its report to the government last month.
