B.C.’s minimum wage increase isn’t enough: advocates

On Wednesday, the B.C. government made good on a previous promise to tie the province’s minimum wage to inflation, and although advocates say it’s good, they also feel it’s not good enough.

Annie Dormuth, the B.C. Provincial Affairs Director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says she’s not against the wage hike but would have also liked to see a little extra help for business owners.

“It’s important to recognize small businesses, along with British Columbians and really all Canadians right now, are dealing with the same inflationary pressures, however, on top of that they’re seeing cost increases from really all sides of government.

“Property tax increases, the carbon tax increase that did just come into effect, as well as the employer health tax, the WorkSafe BC premiums, and employer-paid sick days. These are all new costs,” explained Dormuth. “Every time the minimum wage does increase, so does, for example, your WorkSafe BC premium. So, that’s what [businesses] were looking forward to [from] government.”

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She fears some businesses may struggle to pay workers and it will affect their service abilities.

“Us, along with other industry groups already sent and recommended a three per cent cap [on minimum wage], recognizing there has been a lot of dumping of costs on B.C. businesses,” she said.

Dormuth feels the province has done a lot to help people with affordability, but wants them to do even more.

That sentiment is echoed by Anastasia French, the provincial manager for Living Wage for Families BC. She says the increase will help thousands of workers across the province who are trying to make ends meet, but there’s still a significant gap in how much people should be making.

“There’s still a $7 an hour gap between the minimum wage, which is the legal minimum you need to be able to pay your staff, and actually what you need to be able to survive. And the living wage at the moment for Metro Vancouver is $24.08 an hour.

“What we’d really like is for the government to take steps to both increase the minimum wage and… look at how they can increase it even further,” she said.

With the cost of housing and food so expensive, making more money is crucial, she notes.

“I think this increase will put an extra $2,000-$3,000 in the pockets of low-wage workers over the course of the year, which is great. Is it life-changing? Probably not. It probably won’t mean that they’re earning enough that they can actually afford to move out of their basement apartment that’s got mold in it.”

B.C.’s minimum wage, which is one of the highest in the country, will hit $16.75 an hour on June 1st. The province says the bump will affect about 150,000 workers, most of them food service staff, grocery store, and retail workers.

The $1.10 increase is higher than the 45-cent boost the province rolled out in 2022.

–With files from Monika Gul