B.C. needs $15/hr by 2019
Poverty, labour groups address Fair Wages Commission
The minimum wage in B.C. needs to be raised to $15 an hour by next January, the Fair Wages Commission heard Tuesday in Kelowna. The minimum wage has not kept up with the rising cost of living nor with inflation, said Christine Mettler, Okanagan co-ordinator with the BC Poverty Coalition. Mettler was one of about 10 people who attended a hearing hosted by the commission in Kelowna.
While Mettler said she believes the minimum wage should be increased as soon as possible, she said the coalition is recommending January 2019 to give employers time.
“A $15-an-hour wage is just enough to be above the poverty line,” she said. “It’s not a living wage.”
The living wage in Kelowna is about $18 to $19 an hour, she said.
“That means enough to actually live with dignity, to be able to not only afford rent and food, but a few extras, too.”
The minimum wage in B.C. is $11.35 an hour. Mettler would like to see minimum wage increased to the living wage one day.
“That would be ideal, but of course there’s what’s politically feasible at the moment and there’s the ideal, so it’s something we can always strive for, and I think we will indeed be striving for it,” she said. It is estimated Kelowna has about the 13th highest living wage in the country, she said. The low-income cutoff in Canada is just over $24,000, and someone working full time at minimum wage in B.C. now makes just over $20,000 a year before taxes, said Mettler.
“We believe no one should be working full time and living in poverty.”
In B.C., 25 per cent of all workers make less than $15 an hour, she said.
Shelley Sage Ricci, representing Indigenous workers for the BC Federation of Labour, said her group is suggesting increasing the minimum wage to $14 an hour next year and $15 an hour by 2019.
“The riches of our economic prosperity are not being distributed equally,” said Ricci. “While the rich in our province are getting richer, low-income earners are struggling more than ever.”
— The Daily Courier