B.C. has lowest minimum wage in Canada

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/01/bc-lowest-minimum-wage.html
http://www.policynote.ca/bcs-minimum-wage-is-now-22-lower-than-ontarios/


Summary:

When New Brunswick officially raised its minimum wage to $8.25 an hour, British Columbia has claimed the honour to be the province with the lowest minimum wage in Canada. Not to mention British Columbia is one of the 3 provinces in Canada that pays training wages to first-time employees. Approximately 60,000 people in B.C. earned $8 per hour last year and nearly 300,000 people earned less than $10 per hour, which is below the poverty line. When compared to Ontario’s minimum wage, B.C.’s $8 minimum is 22% lower than Ontario’s, which means B.C.’s workers are earning one fifth less than the workers of Ontario. Despite the effort contributed by many people such as the B.C. Federation of Labour, the NDPs and many more to raise the minimum wage to a reasonable price, they were all turned down by the government. Ever since Premier Gordon Campbell and the Liberal government took over, they have frozen the minimum wage for about 9 years, the longest wage freeze in Canada followed by a two year freeze by Nunavut. The only excuse they had was that the raising of minimum wage will hurt the businesses and will reduce job opportunities for the young people and contrarily, Premier Gordon Campbell doubled his own salary over the 8 year wage freeze.

Connection:

British Columbia’s minimum wage connects to Chapter 16.1 where it talks about wages. By definition, wages are payments to workers for their labour, on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, or by the piece. Based on the numbers of workers paid by wages from the article, we can assume that a major population of BC workers are paid by wages. Minimum wage is set as a standard for employers to pay its employees. Since the economy changes over time as a result of inflation and many other factors, minimum wage have to be adjusted to a reasonable amount to ensure that workers are able to afford basic necessities such as shelter and food. Although this may be beneficial for many workers in BC, it could cause problems for the accountants working with payroll expenses. Accountants and accounting softwares would have to adapt to the changes. New software updates must be made and would have to spend some time adapting to new tax deduction figures.

Reflection:

With British Columbia being one of the most expensive provinces to live in Canada, I believe that the minimum wage should be increased. Although the increase of minimum wage will cause an increase in a business’s payroll expenses, it will not dramatically affect the business’s performance. However, considering that the businesses in all the other provinces in Canada did not cause many problems, the businesses in B.C. should not have problems with the increase in minimum wage. Ontario is an excellent example of a prosperous province similar to B.C, but with a difference of $2.25 (22% more) in minimum wage. B.C is well known for the most expensive housing prices in Canada and yet it has the lowest minimum wage across Canada. How does the government expect B.C. citizens especially immigrants to afford a shelter, one of the basic needs, while working for $8 an hour? As a future part-time job worker, I strongly believe the minimum wage of B.C. should be increased.

Comment: Dickson's Blog