Earnings flat, NDP calls for minimum wage hike

Average weekly earnings in Saskatchewan were flat at $993 in February, but still third-highest among the provinces, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

Only Alberta at $1,118 and Newfoundland and Labrador at $1,012 were higher that Saskatchewan, which remained well above the national average weekly earnings of $954, the federal agency reported.

While Saskatchewan average weekly earnings remained stable, posting a 0.2 per cent increase over the $991 earned in February 2015, Alberta saw a sharp 3.4 per cent decline or $39 per week from last year’s average weekly earnings of $1,157.

But as Regina-Lewvan NDP MP Erin Weir noted, average weekly earnings in Saskatchewan rose by only half the national average increase of 0.4 per cent.

“Our province’s anemic wages are lagging well behind inflation,’’ Weir said. “To help employees keep up with the cost of living, governments must improve the minimum wage.”

Weir said that the NDP has proposed a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour.

“The Liberal government has not reinstated any federal minimum wage. Employees in federally regulated industries are currently subject to the provincial minimum wage, which is only $10.50 per hour in Saskatchewan.”

Restoring a federal minimum wage would immediately help bank tellers, airport screeners and other Saskatchewan workers in federally regulated sectors, Weir said in a commentary.

“It would also encourage our provincial government to raise its minimum wage, which is almost the lowest in Canada.”

Doug Elliott, publisher of Sask Trends Monitor said raising hourly wage rates may not necessarily increase average weekly earnings, which are based on hours of work. “There’s a pretty clear disconnect between average hourly wage rates in the province and average weekly earnings,’’ Elliott said.

Elliott pointed out hourly wage rates were up 3.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, which is well above the rate of inflation. Average weekly earnings, on the other hand, were up only 0.2 per cent year over year in February or 0.5 per cent for the first two months of the year combined.

“There is a simple reason for this — hours of work,’’ Elliott said. In the first quarter of 2016, full-time jobs have declined by 1.1 per cent and part-time jobs have increased by 3.9 per cent.

Combined with the fact that the number of overtime hours worked is below average means that gross earnings are not keeping pace with wage rates.