Minimum wage increase isn’t enough says advocate

French says that a living wage in Nanaimo is $22.87 an hour, over five dollars more than the announced minimum wage. Photo courtesy of Clay Banks / Unsplash.com

 BC’s minimum wage will be increasing from $16.75 to $17.40 an hour on June 1st.

The province also introduced legislation that would tie future increases to the minimum wage to inflation.

Alternate minimum rates for residential caretakers, live-in home-support workers and camp leaders will also receive a 3.9 per cent increase on June 1st, and the minimum agricultural piece rates will see the same percentage increase on December 31st.

Anastasia French is the provincial manager for Living Wage for Families BC, a non-profit that advocates for a liveable wage in the province.

French said that a liveable wage is calculated by the costs of basic needs including food, clothing, rental housing, childcare, transportation, and small savings to cover illness or emergencies in different communities across the province.

“The minimum wage is the legal minimum that an employer must pay their workers and it's the same across BC,” she said. “It's calculated and decided by the government and is currently $16.75 and it's due to go up to $17.40. But that actually isn't how much it costs to live.” 

French said that a living wage in Nanaimo is $22.87 an hour, over five dollars more than the announced minimum wage. People in the Cowichan Valley would need to make $25.20 an hour to make ends meet.

French said Nanaimo has a lower liveable wage compared to other Vancouver Island areas because of better access to public transit.  

“I think actually, the housing costs come out to be relatively similar for the Cowichan Valley and Nanaimo. But the main differentiator is that car use and the fact that in actuality, both parents in the Cowichan Valley need to own a vehicle,” she said. “Whereas our assumption for Nanaimo is that one parent can have a vehicle and the other one can probably get to work on the bus.” 

French said it is good to see the province raise the minimum wage but there are still problems the increase does not solve.

“The problem is that unfortunately, right now, for low-wage workers, their costs are going up far higher than the general rate of inflation. So inflation takes into account the price increases for a lot of things. So some basic essentials, but also it takes into account luxury goods and furniture and things that people may not be buying on an annual basis,” French said. “Whereas actually, if you look at the cost of basic essentials, like food and rent, those costs are going up at a much, much higher rate than the three per cent pay increase that the government has awarded this year.” 

French said increasing the minimum wage to something like $22 an hour overnight might seem like a stretch but she said there are other ways the government could make it easier for minimum-wage workers. 

“We also want governments to look at the affordability side of it, what can we do to bring down the cost of housing, what can we do to bring down the cost of food, because all of these things if we can lower costs and make it easier for low wage workers, so they're not having to spend more and more money on basic essentials,” French said.

French said she would like to see the government build more affordable housing and improve transit systems. 

“We want the government to build more affordable housing. Look at how they can protect renters, so the renters aren't forced to move and suddenly see an increase in their rent,” she said. “Developing things like better transit so that in those rural communities, workers can get by using a transit pass rather than having to depend on expensive cars.” 

French explained that those changes could stop the living wage from rising so minimum wage can eventually catch up with it.

She also said that paying employees a liveable wage makes smart businesses sense.

“While it can mean that it can be a struggle because suddenly they've seen an increase to their labour costs,” French said. “They can address staff turnover, which costs businesses lots of money when they have to hire new people or they have to get their workers working overtime to cover the fact that someone is out of their job.” 

French said Living Wage for Families BC has 10 businesses in Nanaimo that range from janitorial companies to childcare, that have committed to giving their employees a liveable wage. 

“And all of those businesses, the reason they pay a living wage isn't just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense for them as well,” she said.

Along with the announcement of the increase to the minimum wage, the province announced amendments to the Employment Standards Act that will tie future increases to the minimum wage to the previous year’s average inflation rate. Bill 2 was introduced on February 26th.ed unanimously in favour of approving the new temporary exemption to the Noise Control Bylaw.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.