B.C. announces schedule for minimum pay increases

NDP comes up with compromise that leaves all sides somewhat disappointed

Premier John Horgan’s promise Thursday of a phased increase in the minimum wage to $15.20 an hour by 2021 was called moving too fast or too slow, depending on the group represented.

It starts with a $1.30 raise to $12.65 in June, then $1.20 in 2019 with smaller increases in 2020 and 2021, which Horgan characterized as a compromise in keeping with a comprehensive review by the fair-wage commission he set up in October.

“We believe 2021 is not overly ambitious,” Horgan said. “In fact, it’s going to be a disappointment to some. We’re trying to find a balance of predictability for business and some sense of hope to people living on wages below $15 today.”

It was a balance between business groups, which largely lobbied for a five-year path to the $15 mark and anti-poverty advocates that wanted to see B.C. match Alberta and Ontario, which plan $15 by 2019.

To some of B.C.’s low-wage workers, the path to $15.20 sounds a little too slow.

Cleaner Delia Tanza, 53, works three jobs to cover rent, bus pass and groceries for her and a 16-yearold son, and would be happy with $15.20 per hour at all of them, but “we’re hoping that we have that right now.”

Her co-worker, Analou Espina, 43, added two years is too long to wait, because “the living wage in Vancouver is so high. Everything is very expensive.”

Both earn about $11.75 an hour working full time as cleaners for Best Service Pros at Capilano University, and will be among those who benefit from the June increase, which will apply to 94,000 minimum-wage earners, according to government estimates,

The government estimates bringing the minimum to $15 will increase wages to 400,000 workers, and Horgan said the government is deliberately making the biggest hikes at a time of rosy expectations for the economy.

Thursday’s move won’t change things for liquor servers who earn tips or agricultural piece workers. Their wage rates will be dealt with in a second phase of the fair-wage commission’s work that government plans to roll out in March.

The raise lives up to an NDP election campaign promise, moderated by an effort to review wages that the B.C. Green party advocated for in the agreement the parties negotiated to take power.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver had been opposed to arbitrarily raising the minimum wage to $15, but on Thursday said he supports the result.

Front-end loading the increases in the first two years will force small businesses to cut costs, which will result in less hiring and rolling back hours for other employees, said Richard Truscott, vice-president for B.C. and Alberta at the Canadian Federation for Small Business.

“If government increases the cost of creating (entry-level) jobs so dramatically, obviously there will be fewer and fewer of them,” Truscott said, noting wages aren’t the only rising costs for small business.

Horgan said government is also reducing costs for business with measures such as cutting sales tax on electricity and reducing small business tax rates. Truscott called those measures “small pats on the back at the same time they’re punching small business in the gut.”

B.C. Federation of Labour president Irene Lanzinger said she was happy to see government aim for the $15, but disappointed it isn’t moving faster.

“Making 500,000 low-paid workers who currently make less than $15 wait until June 1, 2021 to climb above poverty wage rates is not fair,” Lanzinger said in a statement.

Government made a good move making the biggest raises early, said Iglika Ivanova, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, because there is a better chance its cost will be masked in an improving economy.