B.C.’s minimum wage increase needs to be better
It comes along with a slew of other reforms, but the number itself is not adequate
Art by Rachel De Freitas
Minimum wage in British Columbia jumped up from $15.65 to $16.75 per hour on June 1. Labour Minister Harry Bains touted this increase as creating a wage that keeps up with inflation and helps prevent lowest paid workers from falling behind. The increase also reflects the province’s 2022 average annual inflation rate of 6.9 per cent.
B.C. now has the second highest minimum wage nation-wide, just two cents short of the Yukon’s minimum wage and $3.75 higher than Saskatchewan, which has the lowest. This is a noteworthy achievement, but outside of the back-patting MLAs in the B.C. NDP and David Eby government, we have to question if it’s enough for the working people.
The wage increase is not the only measure taken by the provincial government. Other labour reforms introduced include the return of card-check unionization, WorkSafe reforms, five paid sick days, and stronger employment standards enforcement.
All together, these measures are good for workers. In isolation, an hourly wage hike would be a miniscule solution to what is going on with the affordability to live. That being said, easier membership in unions and better employment laws can be hard to join if buying bread is already a challenge. Unfortunately, this is Metro Vancouver, which is practically a synonym for expensive these days.
Living Wages for Families BC found the living wage, or the minimum amount hourly earners need to live comfortably, for Metro Vancouver in 2022 was $24.08 per hour. This is $7.33 higher than what B.C. workers are now earning, and this estimate takes into account the drastic increase in food and housing costs in the region.
Given this, B.C.’s minimum wage hike still leaves workers short changed, especially the working poor as they are paying more, relative to their incomes, for the bare necessities. Then there are the agricultural workers who are a class of their own thanks to legal wage suppression and are paid in piece rate wages at the behest of the BC Agricultural Council.
While the BC Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business may give out their profit margins to employees struggling to put food on their tables, the reality is obvious: minimum wages and real wages are not matching up.
We are conditioned to believe that $20 per hour is “too much right now” when it is not that difficult to find people who are struggling to make ends meet. They are the restaurant servers, retail workers, grocery clerks, shelf stockers, janitors, warehouse pickers, and so on. They have to tighten their belts to the point of financial strangulation just to have food and shelter, which are increasingly, and to an alarming extent, becoming harder to obtain on a weekly basis.
While the new list of reforms intended to help struggling workers are still worthwhile and will open doors for better wages and working conditions, those who live off the minimum wage hardships continue on with minimum differences than before.
If we want to ensure that people do not get priced out of Vancouver, then we have to ensure that they, regardless of their line of work, are paid decently. Everybody talks about economics in terms of taxes and markets yet underestimates the power of workers and consumers, two sides of the same coin.
