By Sophie Isbister (Opinion Editor) – Email
It’s been all over the news. Our new premier designate Christy Clark is raising the minimum wage, and teenagers all over the province are rejoicing. But is this a good thing for British Columbia, or is this just political posturing on the part of Clark and the Liberals?
Some people seem to be upset rather than excited over the news, especially the service industry, which is already reeling from an economic downturn that caused people to dine out less and the Harmonized Sales Tax, which has proven to be a negative factor in the industry. Additionally, the minimum wage for alcohol-servers is going to be capped at $9/hour, a decision that is a slap in the face to servers and other bar staff, many of whom are students who struggle with tuition fees and living expenses.
Under the Gordon Campbell government, the minimum wage lagged far below the rate of inflation and cost of living– in fact, he even effectively lowered it by introducing the 6-dollar-per-hour training wage (which Clark has nixed.) The new wage of $10.25 per hour, to be phased in completely by May 2012, will match BC’s minimum wage with Ontario’s, which makes for a splashy feel-good headline.
However, an increased minimum wage does little to help the large class of working poor who may currently make a wage above $10.25, yet are still struggling with the high cost of living in this province. And while people could speculate that an even higher wage would cause employers to cut back hours and encourage more part-time employment, that is simply not the case.
A September 2010 study from the Institute of Research on Employment at UC Berkeley shows that a higher minimum wage can benefit employers because it reduces employee turnover. A legislated higher minimum wage across the board may cause prices to rise minutely, but if people make more money then they will have more to spend.
The concept of a “living wage,” or a wage that pays people what they need to cover the costs of rent, bills, nutrition and incidental expenses, would be better for British Columbia than Clark’s paltry minimum wage hike. New Westminster was the first municipality in Canada to implement a living wage; all City of New Westminster employees and contract firms must be paid at least $16.74 per hour. This is what New West has calculated is a fair living wage for people in that municipality, so that they can actually go out and engage in their communities and be healthy and happy.
So if an increased minimum wage doesn’t help the working poor and if a living wage is the only option to pull people out of the cycle of poverty, then what is Clark doing? She appears to be pandering to the people of BC with flashy legislation like this one. Much like her fast-tracking of the HST referendum, it could be argued that this is all politics. Clark is effectively removing two key New Democratic Party platform points with the attention she is supposedly paying to BC’s working class.
Among Clark’s headlines in her first few weeks of rule, the most ridiculous had to have been the government release claiming that “individual students could cover [the] cost [of rising tuition] by buying one less coffee each week,” according to a Canadian Press article dated March 16. It seems Clark takes one step forward to empower the youth of BC and endear herself to them, but then takes two steps backwards with ignorant comments and legislation that holds no water. Clark appears to be helping the people of British Columbia when in fact her actions only serve as a ballsy political move to crowd out the competition in the lead-up to a 2012 election.
