Business unhappy with NDP-Green plan to hike minimum wage to $15 an hour
Putting British Columbia on course to a $15 minimum wage will be part of the Green-backed NDP government-in-waiting’s agenda, a move that business groups have been wary of as much as labour organizations welcome it.
On Tuesday, the same day Ontario announced that it will become the next Canadian jurisdiction to aim for the $15-per-hour mark, NDP Leader John Horgan and Green Leader Andrew Weaver unveiled their plan to follow suit.
A new government would “(immediately) establish an at-arm’slength fair wages commission that will be tasked with establishing a pathway to a minimum wage of at least $15 per hour,” and, within 90 days, make recommendations on bridging the minimum wage to “livable wages.”
But a rapid jump from the current $11.35 per hour to $15 per hour is “terrible economics”, according to Richard Truscott, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ vice-president for Alberta and B.C.
Truscott said moving toward a $15-per-hour minimum wage in Alberta “has been a tough pill to swallow.”
He argues that B.C. should take a more gradual approach or consider exemptions for small businesses.
“It makes a great talking point for politicians, but the on-theground reality is that it’s going to hurt small business,” said Truscott.
Truscott argued that large employers like Walmart might be able to adjust to a sudden wage hike, but small businesses would likely respond by raising prices and reducing hours for entry-level employees.
“That money doesn’t appear out of thin air,” Truscott said. “Employers have to make adjustments to the new reality, and that’s going to hurt.”
However, labour advocates counter that consumers would be likely to pay higher prices if they knew it was paying for better wages for small business employees and that much of it would be recirculated by those workers who have a little more to spend.
“I think it will be a huge benefit to the lowest paid workers in the province,” said Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.
Truscott argued that to deal with poverty, focusing on income supports and training initiatives for workers stuck at minimum wages is a better bet.
Lanzinger said businesses do need to have time to adjust to an increase, but she’s skeptical about the warnings of doom since B.C.’s 2012 $2 minimum-wage increase raising it to $10 from $8 per hour didn’t result in massive job losses.
Besides a proposed increase to the minimum wage, Truscott said CFIB’s member businesses are also concerned about the NDP/ Green alliance’s pledge to review labour laws and start raising the carbon tax by $5 per tonne per year starting in 2018.