Premier hears case for big bump in minimum wage

Premier Rachel Notley said Friday she hopes to axe Alberta’s two-tier minimum hourly wage rate.

Notley and her labour minister spent Thursday and Friday discussing the issue with interest groups.

Notley and Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson first met Thursday with business groups opposed to the NDP plan to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018 and Friday, they met with those in favour.

The two-tier wage was also on the agenda.

“I’d certainly like to see us come up with a path to move away from it,” Notley said of the wage differential, which allows businesses to pay liquor servers $1 less than the hourly minimum because they earn tips.

Alberta first adopted a subminimum wage for tipped workers in 2011, becoming one of five Canadian provinces that have done so since the 1980s.

The practice remains controversial, however, and at least eight U.S. states do not allow it, in part because they say customers tip to benefit workers and not to subsidize employers.

Those who took part in talks Friday were unanimous on two points: First, that no Albertan working full-time should have to visit a food bank. Second, that there should only be one minimum wage.

Key issues of debate concerned how fast to roll out the increase, with Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan argued for a big bump Oct. 1. “The minimum wage should be a living wage. As it stands right now, it’s not even close,” McGowan said.

He said 20 per cent of Alberta’s labour force works for less than $15 an hour, but only a small number work for the $10.20 minimum.

Increasing the wage minimum to $12 an hour would benefit about 60,000 Albertans in a labour force of roughly two million. Raising it higher would benefit far more, he said.

McGowan rejected suggestions that unemployment will rise if the wage goes up quickly, pointing to Santa Fe, N.M., which introduced the first “living wage ordinance” in 2002 and raised wages 60 per cent all at once.

“The minimum wage should be a living wage. As it stands right now, it’s not even close.” GIL MCGOWAN, ALBERTA FEDERATION OF LABOUR

“The business community lit their hair on fire, predicted the economy would collapse, but nothing of the sort happened,” McGowan said.

Larry Booi, president of Public Interest Alberta, said organizations also discussed how raising minimum wage might affect not-for-profit and government organizations that pay low or minimum wages.

“Suddenly you raise the minimum wage and you don’t raise their resources at the same time,” Booi said, adding government might have to increase supports.