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Minimum Wage should be raised to $10 immediately
November 18, 2010
Letter to the Editor of The Vancouver Sun.
The Vancouver Sun editorial of November 18th enjoined the Liberals to follow through on their Finance Committee proposal to raise the minimum wage. Having said that, you let the Liberals off the hook by setting the minimum wage too low.
Most British Columbians have overwhelmingly supported the B.C. Federation of Labour's call to raise the minimum wage to $10.00 now. The Federation's call isn't pulled from thin air. Moving to a $10.00 minimum wage would still leave a full-time minimum-wage earner, (working a forty hour work week) sixty-nine cents below Statistics Canada's Low-income Cut-off (LICO). This follows the recommendation of Dr. Harry Arthurs, former Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, and past President of York University. Arthurs reviewed federal employment standards and recommended minimum wage policy should ensure no full-time worker earns less than the poverty line.
That's why we believe the minimum wage should be raised to $10.00 immediately, followed by semi-annual increases to keep pace with changes in LICO as determined by Statistics Canada.
Inevitably, some low-wage employers will argue moving to $10.00 would amount to a 25 percent increase and that is too large a jump. You can't help but ask where were they when the BC Liberals cut the minimum wage by 25 percent and introduced the $6.00 training wage? Where were they when MLAs voted themselves a 29 percent wage raise and gave the Premier a 54 percent increase?
Rather than trying to water down an increase that is long overdue, we should be challenging the Liberals to ensure those at the low end of the wage scale see a fair increase to $10.00 now.
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