Why is panel targeting lowest wage earners?

It’s a bit rich, not to mention hypocritical, for the fat cats in society to talk about “adjusting” the minimum wage for the least paid of workers.

I’d be a lot less cynical if the “expert” panel actually included a number of workers who are supporting themselves on $15 an hour.

There are three servers on the eight-member panel, albeit when asked if they earned the minimum wage, Jason Copping, minister of labour and immigration said: “I can’t answer that question.” The three women are not hoisting thick mugs of coffee in some roadside diner, but work at two of Calgary’s finer restaurants: Blink and Chop Steakhouse.

I’ll make an assumption here: Even if they are earning minimum wage, most of us tip out at 15 to 20 per cent.

Why does that make a difference?

Main courses for dinner at Blink range from $24 to $42. A glass of wine ranges from $11 to $22, while splurging for a bottle ranges from $40 to $500. At Chop Steakhouse, main courses go from $17.95 to $49.95. The wine list is considerably less expensive than Blink’s: $45 to $180. Many of the wines offered can be ordered by the glass, but as a habitual wine-with-dinner person, it’s a lot less expensive to splurge for the bottle, unless you’re planning on only one glass.

All of that makes a huge difference in the amount of tip. Of course, we’re only talking about servers and restaurants, not other lowly jobs where $15 an hour is the best going.

Contemplate that for a moment: the minimum wage of $15 an hour for a 40-hour week means a salary of $600 a week, before taxes and benefits, if any. Could you support yourself in Calgary on a gross income of $31,200 a year?

Ah, but I hear the scoffers as they sip their fine wine or single malt scotch, nobody is doing that. The minimum wage is just going to the little woman earning some pin money, or the student living at home who needs beer for the weekend. The insulting notion behind this is that minimum-wage workers do not “need” that much money because their support is coming from elsewhere: husband, parents, family members.

Try telling that to the couple with children who are both earning minimum wage and have granny taking care of the children.

I hear from the sidelines the UCP government is only considering the minimum wage in restaurants. Call me skeptical, but I won’t hold my breath given the myriad changes already imposed, including cutting the minimum wage for workers under 18 to $13 an hour, and allowing overtime to be banked as straight time, rather than time-and-a-half.

And unions are not only dealing with the pushback of talks to the end of October, but fear the rise of “rightto-work” legislation. Such a move would allow any worker the right to resist joining a union and paying dues and thus, going on strike, even if the shop is fully unionized.

The only reason, as far as I can see, is the attempt by the current right-leaning government to dismantle every forward motion made by the NDP government.

Rachel Notley was dealt a bad hand in a recessionary economy and still managed to do a credible job. (This is quite a compliment coming from someone who has never, ever voted NDP.)

But the political stripe is immaterial when we are talking living wages for work.

MNP, one of the largest accountancy and business advisory firms in the country, says 44 per cent of Canadians are $200 or less away from financial insolvency. The per person, no-mortgage debt is $29,312, including an average credit card debt of more than $4,000. Statistics Canada’s numbers are even more distressing: the country’s low-income households owe $3.33 for every $1 earned.

It’s even worse than the figures suggest: there are a number of Calgarians (most of us older) who have no debt at all, including no mortgage and certainly no credit card debt. So when we talk about a “per person” debt load, somebody is taking on mine, doubling the statistics.

When Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his government start lauding themselves for cutting their own annual salaries (still the highest in the country, starting at $120,000) because Alberta is “open for business,” perhaps one of his highly paid cabinet ministers could push back, or at least have the common good manners to look embarrassed.