Minimum wages in B.C are very low. I cant afford my cost of living here. Sometimes I get pissed off . Even the wages includes the tax we are paying. It's really very depressing when we have to always think of evn to buy our regular meal.
Sylvia L. - 9 years ago
Minimum wage cannot be raised because it’ll hurt job creation??? I’ve been self-employed for 20 years & as a person standing on the outside looking in, I say that’s a terribly unfair way to see the situation.
Dear corporations/business owners,
If your employees cannot be paid a “living wage”, then someone along the way is being greedy - perhaps the gov’t taxes are too high, the lease rate is too high or your shareholders/the business owner may be taking too much profit. Or perhaps your business is simply not viable.
Whatever the reason, it’s not the responsibility of the employee to subsidize your adventure in profit so that your business can survive.
In Vancouver, B.C., $13 per hour represents the poverty line & $20.68 represents the “living wage” for a family. I say raise minimum wage somewhere in between & let the chips fall where they may. Will it hurt? You betcha! But it will also allow a much-needed correction to take place. If you cannot pay your employees fairly, then your business does not fit into the local eco-system. Period.
Dear employees,
I have news for you. The most insecure income you can make is being employed. Someone else decides if you get the job, get promoted, get a raise & get fired. Someone else decides if the business even survives! That doesn’t sound very secure to me.
Consider self-employment, as even on a very part-time basis, it’ll help you be more financially secure. Doing what? Use your skills. No skills? Start with continuing education courses.
Vicki - 9 years ago
As a business owner, I cannot afford to pay an employee $15.00 per hour. I would be forced to lay off employees and work more myself. Putting businesses out of business or forcing them to lay off staff and perform the work themselves is totally defeating the whole purpose. Especially for servers. In my restaurant my servers average over $10.00 per hour in tips. So they are in fact making $19.00 per hour. A pretty good wage for anyone whether they have an education or not.
andrew - 9 years ago
when I lived in BC my rent was $50 Per month higher than here in Manitoba and I cannot believe that as of now BC has a lower rate of minimum wage than here in MB considering the sky high cost of living there today,
Absolutley the wage should be 50% higher, we did the same here (from $7 to 10.70 ) and now take out meals are pretty high but no restaurants went out of business (that is absolute crap!) they simply did what any other business does- they raised prices or lowered their other costs.
Tin Tran - 9 years ago
Patricia Libby
I completely agree with you.
Raise PWD or CPP!
Our wage actually works out to be $5.23/hr (if you use a 12 month period of 52 weeks, no vacations 40 hours a week, $906 a month).
Even if it was raised to minimum wage ($10.25/hr still be poor, but less depressing) it would help.
If I didn't have my mom or family, I'd sure be homeless.
Randy Paterson - 9 years ago
Raise it to $20.00 across the country.
Make the big wig politicians spending all our tax money take a cut.
Period!!!
Peter - 9 years ago
price of the service (or product) = a+b+c+d+ wage pays
customer pays all of above
therefore: if wage is artificial price is artificial (in case of higher wage, is higher of course)
how competition can solve this "help from above"?
it can't
connie - 9 years ago
I think it's ridiculous to raise minimum wage to 15, why not met the 11. Everybody should know that every time minimum wage goes up so does every thing else. Restaurants have to put the prices up to make up for the wage increase so do grocery, hardware, clothing, furniture, etc. etc. etc. This is NOT a win win solution this is utter bullshit. my first job as a student was minimum wage 3.25 yes I lived at home, when I moved out minimum wage was 5.00 I could eat and put gas in my car and afford repairs and tires even pay my rent. I have always had a minimum wage paying job and being a single parent purchased a house on minimum wage I also had 2 jobs. Now that I have finally got a job that pay's a descent wage I find it hard to work for as long as I have, to have what I have, only to be back to where I started working along side a student who has never had a job in their lives. Because in order to go clubbing and have a high life style they need to earn at least 15 an hr. Could you imagine the transport companies with their drivers who bring all of what we buy, and mind you the drivers don't make that much per km. what would happen if they took these minimum wage jobs cause they would make more money just by staying at home and being with their families every night. That's right the cost of everything goes up, cause it's gotta get to these places some how. Just think about cause I sure have. 11 per hr. would do the trick.
corrina - 9 years ago
I serve and I don't serve alcohol but only make $9 hr yet on every to go order/all sales I am deducted 2percent regardless if I recieve a tip or not.Plus so many people dont tip.It is not fair and the kitchen makes $5 more per hr. Lastly, I slso get deducted for half hr break I dont recieve. I work midnight shift with no compensation for being up all night snd doing dishwashers job.
Tess - 9 years ago
when minimum wage goes up... it needs to be applied across the board.
I work for a company that does not give huge raises each year... 20-40 cents a hour raise..
so when the minimum wage jumps as it did a year or so ago.
the potential for new hires to enter the building making more, then employees that have worked for the company for years , goes right off the chart.
how is it fair for a person to get hired at minimum wage 6- 7 years ago and then work hard to make 30 cent raises each year compete when the minimum wage jumps $2 per hour. An existing employee would be working 7 years to get that amount of money. There is no fairness in this system at all. I do not believe that making minimum wage jump another $5 will make life easier for people. However I do think that the government needs to address some companies and if they want to do business in BC then they need to pay their employees a fair wage.
keaton dayne - 9 years ago
Why a 50% raise? Why not 12 or 13 an hour. 15/hr will strangle a lot of small businesses, and corporations will expect much more. I do sympathise with students struggling to afford school and survival or young parents but that should be dealt with in other ways with our taxes. A lot of minimum wage jobs aren't worth 15/hr and neither are some workers
Toby Young - 9 years ago
ok so if min wage goes from 10.25 to 15..does my wage go from 16 to 20.25 and if not then this is totally 100% bs and unfair to the rest of us...why should a no brainer job like gas stations and lawn mowing be paid 15...its not worth it especially if my wage stays the same its total bs...instead lower the cost of living and get rid of the ILLEGAL INCOME TAX !!! WW2 IS OVER GET RID OF IT !!!!
Breiden - 9 years ago
yeah let's raise minimum wage so everything becomes more expensive and no one who actually applied themselves gets a wage increase. Obviously everyone who makes 10$ an hour wants a raise fuck this is retarded I want a raise to no one feels bad for me making X amount . Go get a job !!!
john v - 9 years ago
Higher minimum pay is good but the effect is proportional to living expenses, since everything will goes up as well, It would be best if they will talked about how to reduce the cost of living, especially rental fee or housing, and food which is the basic necessity.
ryan - 9 years ago
Any entreprenurs who understands the economy the slightest bit will tell you that if you raise the minimum wage, you are creating higher overhead for the company which will drive them to raise their prices on everything it sounds good to minimum wage workers but all that will happen is people will increase there spending habbits to match there new income and inflation will speed up rapidly to compensate for the higher overhead. Smaller companies could potentially go out of buisness the average person who is below the poverty line right now will still be below the poverty line the line will just be set higher
Selena - 9 years ago
I work a minimum wage job and I don't think it should be raised to 15 an hour. That's going to just raise the cost in everything. For example Medical service plans, and for health/dental. It will also raise the cost of living. Come on people give your head a shake. If they want to raise the minimum wage at least raise it to 12.25 or 13 an hour
Tyler Smeland - 9 years ago
another thing to small bushiness always wonder why its busy on Friday its PAYDAY 15 dollar increase will get people out of the house to go out to eat, pick up groceries, and try out new stores or small bushiness .
Tyler Smeland - 9 years ago
Tyler Smeland my opinion right now is to all the small town people to not just the city's we got like 150 people in their early 20's who cant even get a car because they cant afford it and when you do find a job its like they try to rob you for hours so they don't have to pay taxes its actually the worst cycle. with minimal wage up at least we don't get screwed by the part time hours bull shit and wasting 3 hours of your day trying to get to work on a bus.
Laurie Mark - 9 years ago
I think $12. would be a better goal. If the min. wage goes up to $15. many small businesses will not be able to stay in business, thus many workers will be laid off. Then they will have a much bigger problem.
Beth Humphreys - 9 years ago
I am of two minds on this issue...
As a (former) small business owner, I know that raising the minimum wage by 50% (such as a $10 to $15 jump would represent) would have forced me out of business, as I would not have been able to afford my staffing costs. This is already taking into account the fact that I was not taking a wage at the time, and working longer hours than any of my staff.
On the other hand, I know several young people who struggle everyday to make ends meet on jobs that pay minimum or close to minimum wage. Many of them have no benefits and work multiple jobs just to put food on the table and a roof overhead for their kids. It is not unusual for employers to cap their weekly hours to avoid paying benefits, and schedule them for 5 hour shifts to avoid having to provide for meal breaks. The result is that these workers have to work 7 days a week, usually at more them one job, and much of their non-working time is spent traveling between jobs instead of spending time with their kids. These are people who desperately need better paying wages and benefits for their families. In addition, often when their children are sick, they risk losing their jobs if they take time off to care for their kids and are forced to send their sick kids to daycare/babysitters. The cost of living is very high in the lower mainland and Victoria areas and something must be done to better the standard of living for these young families.
I have seen suggestions for a graduated minimum, such as basing it on age of the employee and perhaps geographical region, which could be a solution, perhaps providing assistance to small businesses to offset the impact that this would have on them, and providing better rules for providing reasonable working hours and benefits to part-time staff would help. Also, I think that better regulations to prevent employers from firing workers when they are faced with childcare issues and allowing for reasonable accommodation in those cases would also help. We live in one of the richest countries in the world, and we have to do better to provide young families the means to be more financially stable.
just my 2 cents...
Maureen - 9 years ago
As B.C. is the most expensive province to live in, anyone working in low paying jobs will tell you the wage needs to go up. It is not just students living at home working for this wage, everywhere I go I see more and more seniors working to supplement their income. For the few bad apples who don't deserve the wage increase there are so many (thousands) more that do. I also agree that the writers who criticize a low wage earner have no idea of the crap that a low wage earner must put up with. Here in the Okanagan it is very much an attitude if you complain about anything they can replace you today, so workers keep quiet and work overtime for free etc etc to keep a job. Criticism for cashiers? whoever made that comment has no idea the daily verbal abuse they must put up with and have never been in their shoes. Business owners who say they cannot afford to increase wages, maybe they will have to work harder! Working two or three jobs is not possible for everyone, ask anyone with school age children, you cannot work evenings or weekends without huge sacrifices and if you do you will pay babysitters most of your wages!
Robyn - 9 years ago
It has been repeatedly proven that a higher minimum wage actually benefits its economy. Not only do low wage workers/families have a closer to living wage, allowing them to be able to afford better housing, health care and basic needs, but often allows them more purchase power on all items, be they necessity or luxury.
Very few workers in low wage jobs are "lazy" or "stupid". I know many low wage workers and often they are far more conscientious and harder working than higher paid employees. Many work more than one job as well, just to make ends meet. Allowing them to have a decent living wage allows them to have a better work/life balance, and opens up more jobs, and a greater population willing to work those jobs.
For those who really are "lazy", it is unlikely they would keep their jobs, regardless of what wage they are paid.
It has also been repeatedly proven that a higher minimum wage does not significantly affect profitability of businesses unless that profitability is already compromised,
Costs to employers decrease as employees tend to stay at a job longer if they are able to attain better work/life balances....impossible on a minimum wage lower than poverty level. The costs of constantly training new employees can be significant. One job I trained for, the estimated training cost for a single employee was over $20 000. This was not a minimum wage job, but most of the people I started working with are still there after almost 20 years. This can be translated to some degree to the minimum wage jobs. Many people don't aspire to more. That doesn't mean they are lazy, it means they might actually be happy to do that job, provided they can make an actual living on what they are doing.
As a small business owner, and having been, at one time, a minimum wage worker (working as many as 4 jobs to raise my child - Lazy, my foot), I am more than happy to pay a reasonable wage to my employees, and adding a benefit package as well. In the long run, the benefits to me are significant.
Devan - 9 years ago
Raising minimum wage will simply raise the cost of living once again. People need to deserve the wage they receive. For example, should a cashier make $15 an hour? Out of these 120,000 people making minimum wage how many of them are actually living on their own? Even making $15 an hour will not be diffident to live alone. It will cause more harm than good in my mind to increase minimum wage. It will only benefit our government with increase in tax revenue.
pensioner - 9 years ago
If a company wants to keep good employees, let the company decide to give them a decent wage. Not force the company to overpay the not so perfect employees.
You cannot fire people because you cannot afford to pay them.
Our special nights out are when we can use the A&W coupons to dine at our local A&W. Once and awhile we even splurge on full price. If minimum wage goes to $15 it will make their prices go up. One girl working there is not really worth $10/hour.
J.K. - 9 years ago
The higher the cost of labour the less hours an employer gives the employee and as a result employees need more part time jobs.
Instead force employers to hire full time employees and give them benefits.
joe - 9 years ago
By definition, maipulating and bullying to get a wage higher than market rate WILL put others OUT of a job.
Jim Sinclair and his followers are BEING SELFISH in bullying those less fortunate OUT OF A JOB.
It is extremely basic Economics to show that he is wrong, so he MUST know that his public statements are false and misleading.
Unfortunate.
CJ - 9 years ago
If you look at Denmark, the average McDonald's worker makes $20.00 an hour and the price of a Big Mac is only slightly more than it is here (look it up).
And spare me the 1960's crap; "you're digging ditches because you didn't go to school". There are plenty of educated people who are skilled, sharp thinkers, but still working in poverty.
Your work should be respected, period. And that means a living wage. Anything less is a form of slavery.
Hard working Organic Farmer - 9 years ago
To all those saying that we need to better ourselves to deserve more money, that is absurd! I'm a "Jack of all trades" with a several certificates all having to do with my job and I do the work of two people because my boss wont hire more help. Yet somehow he feels I'm worth $13/h and that's after getting a raise. And by the way, those people flipping burgers or whatever grimy job, may or may not work just as hard as you do but they definately take more crap from higher ups and total strangers than you could even dream of. $15/h would help everyone that works hard and is under-appreciated.
Haley - 9 years ago
To all those who think us people who work for minimum wage are to lazy to go to school and get a degree, everyone who has gone to school to own their own business or what not, they have those "lazy" minimum wage employees working under them. Without minimum wage workers there would be no more fast food industries, restaurant staff etc. So you big shots who seem to think it's ok to call us hard working persons making minimum wage, lazy, just remember we feed you, run your expensive items through the check out, clean your homes and do it all with a smile on our face because we have to, if we want to be able to feed, clothe and have a roof over our family's heads.
chris - 9 years ago
Cost of living goes up. Only people that benefit are unskilled people with no ambition to do physical labour. Don't like minimum wage get a skill
Ben Steinmeier - 9 years ago
For all the people saying go to school and get a real job, most people who have are not even able to use their degrees and are working at McDonalds. At this point, going to school is a gamble on the economy and yes, this WOULD stabilize things more. I make $11.50/hr and even then when you include all the costs of living with some things becoming more of a necessity to live in today's age (i.e. cellphone, credit card, internet), you don't have that much takeaway left to even look at making long-term investments. Also, going to school means you get a student loan that is going to be eating that money you make for years, so you won't even get the benefit of that big paycheck until you are into your 30's and that's if you even find employment in your field. During that time, you will have also probably gone more into debt just trying not to get evicted or not starve as food prices continue to escalate.
lucas - 9 years ago
If anyone has ever taken an economics course they should understand why this cannot happen. Dream on though. No one will pay 15/hr to flip burgers.
Where do you get $10.25 min. wage? try find a job thats more than 20hrs a week, doesnt that make it $5 hr?
don - 9 years ago
Increasing min wage will increase cost of living -this would further push poverty on people on fixed income and social assistance. Getting more money per hour does not equate to more wealth or spending power.
Brittany - 9 years ago
Also, the government shouldn't source jobs from outside the province/country as well as maybe prevent businesses from bringing in cheap immigrants to work for less than minimum wage. ALSO I think PST and GST should go up BUT income under a certain amount would not have income tax and then people who work under the table would pay the same taxes as most minimum and lower income people.
And to the people who say "get a degree and get a REAL job" obviously have NO CLUE how many people have degrees and there are no jobs in their field anymore. Not to mention young adults are encouraged to make rash decisions about what they want to do, they invest money and then they might find later on that it isn't what they what to do OR they get laid off and their field isn't hiring. The world isn't black and white. Going to school doesn't guarantee you a decent wage.
The government probably would need more funding so legalizing pot would then be able to help financially.
Brian W - 9 years ago
Take the money and restart the school hot lunch program.
At least the money will get to the children that need it.
Brittany - 9 years ago
I think we need to focus on preventing things like housing costs and necessary foods from going UP as well as raise the wage a little bit more. Huge profit companies need to be /encouraged/ to invest profit into wage increases which I can't think of a way unless everything was unionized. While landlords aren't allowed to raise their rent beyond a certain amount each year, they certainly aren't charging a FAIR amount before they then start raising it. Minimum wage should be defined differently, such as a starting wage that increases or a wage that you start with if you have ZERO experience and after a year or so you start getting a wage increase. It isn't fair to have people work for years for you and never increase their wage.
JBh - 9 years ago
I am currently in a three year diploma program right now for my career and when I'm done starting wage is 18 dollars an hour. I'm putting all of this hard work in to have a real career to be making 3 dollars more than people with no motivation to go to school? Doesn't seem right. If minimum wage goes up all other wages should go up. If you want to make better money GO TO SCHOOL. There are student loans for people who can't afford it ..
BCTaxpayer - 9 years ago
Raising the wages simply forces companies to raise prices. Most small companies do not have a high enough profit margin as it is. So between higher prices and higher taxes (make more they take more) people would be right where they were before. If the gov actually wants to step in and help they need to help with lowering fuel cost and energy costs which is a huge part of why food is so expensive and makes up the largest part of the average families expenses next to housing.
Judy - 9 years ago
I think minimum wage should be equal for all people who make minimum wage no matter what job they have. Whether or not they serve alcohol or work in a department store or gas station, we all work hard to make ends meet so minimum wage should be the same for all who work for minimum wage. For us servers that get tips, we can not depend on that. We do not know if we go home with $5 or $50. That is a sad excuse for servers to not be equal with making minimum wage, doesn't matter if gets raised, everyone, servers or not, should make the same minimum wage if that's what they make.
leah - 9 years ago
30 years ago I was making minimum wage of $7.00/hr. That means it has increased $3.25 in 30 years. Many educated people are in minimum wage jobs, so that is not the issue. 3 of my daughters work for very small businesses and all 3 of them make much more than minimum wage, because the people they work for are fair and are not looking for enormous profits on the backs of their loyal employees. It is the huge companies like Walmart and Value Village and the list goes on.....who have huge profits with owners living in multi-million dollar homes that refuse to pay their employees a descent wage. They could easily pay more to their employees and stop lining their own wallets. Minimum wage earers are the back bone of our society not the lower class civilians that should suck it up and accept the scaps that fall from the wealthy mans table!!
Business Student - 9 years ago
Raising the wage in B.C shouldn't happen.
Like stated before, if you want more money, you have to work for it. Nothing just gets handed to you.
People need to stop being so damn lazy.
Min wage employee - 9 years ago
Hey business owner.
Not everyone does jack at their job.
I work very hard, for a minimum wage.
I work 3 jobs!
I have two kids to raise too!
I also have two college diplomas and a degree.
Getting an education isn't always the answer.
If min wage goes up, consumers will have more money to spend, thus the economy thrives.
It's a win win.
Business owner - 9 years ago
Let's get serious here. If the min wage goes up to that my business will be done. I'm in a business where I can't raise the prices to cover a raise like that.
If employees want to make more money they should do more for their employers not just do zip and have the government help them.
If u don't like what u make quit And go to school and get a education to get a better job.
Julie p - 9 years ago
Listen raising minimum wages will not help at all...It will cause more people to shoplift...I am a minimum wage worker...I think what will help is if companies would have to have more full time staff...If you are having problems making ends meet then get a higher paying job or work 2 jobs...I have 3 jobs and I work 7 days a week...I am also helping as much as I can with my children's collage education...If minimum wages go so does the cost of living...Put on my big boy/girl pants stop complaining if you need more money then don't expect the government to do it for you fix your own problems...
Patricia Libby - 9 years ago
I think all the people who voted NO,it could hurt job creation in our province are business owners.
You say that $13 an hour would meet the poverty line, what about me on a PWD pension and 60 years old.
My wage works out to $5.66 and hour. How about raising PWD or CPP to $13 an hour!
Most of my money goes to my landlord.
Minimum wages in B.C are very low. I cant afford my cost of living here. Sometimes I get pissed off . Even the wages includes the tax we are paying. It's really very depressing when we have to always think of evn to buy our regular meal.
Minimum wage cannot be raised because it’ll hurt job creation??? I’ve been self-employed for 20 years & as a person standing on the outside looking in, I say that’s a terribly unfair way to see the situation.
Dear corporations/business owners,
If your employees cannot be paid a “living wage”, then someone along the way is being greedy - perhaps the gov’t taxes are too high, the lease rate is too high or your shareholders/the business owner may be taking too much profit. Or perhaps your business is simply not viable.
Whatever the reason, it’s not the responsibility of the employee to subsidize your adventure in profit so that your business can survive.
In Vancouver, B.C., $13 per hour represents the poverty line & $20.68 represents the “living wage” for a family. I say raise minimum wage somewhere in between & let the chips fall where they may. Will it hurt? You betcha! But it will also allow a much-needed correction to take place. If you cannot pay your employees fairly, then your business does not fit into the local eco-system. Period.
Dear employees,
I have news for you. The most insecure income you can make is being employed. Someone else decides if you get the job, get promoted, get a raise & get fired. Someone else decides if the business even survives! That doesn’t sound very secure to me.
Consider self-employment, as even on a very part-time basis, it’ll help you be more financially secure. Doing what? Use your skills. No skills? Start with continuing education courses.
As a business owner, I cannot afford to pay an employee $15.00 per hour. I would be forced to lay off employees and work more myself. Putting businesses out of business or forcing them to lay off staff and perform the work themselves is totally defeating the whole purpose. Especially for servers. In my restaurant my servers average over $10.00 per hour in tips. So they are in fact making $19.00 per hour. A pretty good wage for anyone whether they have an education or not.
when I lived in BC my rent was $50 Per month higher than here in Manitoba and I cannot believe that as of now BC has a lower rate of minimum wage than here in MB considering the sky high cost of living there today,
Absolutley the wage should be 50% higher, we did the same here (from $7 to 10.70 ) and now take out meals are pretty high but no restaurants went out of business (that is absolute crap!) they simply did what any other business does- they raised prices or lowered their other costs.
Patricia Libby
I completely agree with you.
Raise PWD or CPP!
Our wage actually works out to be $5.23/hr (if you use a 12 month period of 52 weeks, no vacations 40 hours a week, $906 a month).
Even if it was raised to minimum wage ($10.25/hr still be poor, but less depressing) it would help.
If I didn't have my mom or family, I'd sure be homeless.
Raise it to $20.00 across the country.
Make the big wig politicians spending all our tax money take a cut.
Period!!!
price of the service (or product) = a+b+c+d+ wage pays
customer pays all of above
therefore: if wage is artificial price is artificial (in case of higher wage, is higher of course)
how competition can solve this "help from above"?
it can't
I think it's ridiculous to raise minimum wage to 15, why not met the 11. Everybody should know that every time minimum wage goes up so does every thing else. Restaurants have to put the prices up to make up for the wage increase so do grocery, hardware, clothing, furniture, etc. etc. etc. This is NOT a win win solution this is utter bullshit. my first job as a student was minimum wage 3.25 yes I lived at home, when I moved out minimum wage was 5.00 I could eat and put gas in my car and afford repairs and tires even pay my rent. I have always had a minimum wage paying job and being a single parent purchased a house on minimum wage I also had 2 jobs. Now that I have finally got a job that pay's a descent wage I find it hard to work for as long as I have, to have what I have, only to be back to where I started working along side a student who has never had a job in their lives. Because in order to go clubbing and have a high life style they need to earn at least 15 an hr. Could you imagine the transport companies with their drivers who bring all of what we buy, and mind you the drivers don't make that much per km. what would happen if they took these minimum wage jobs cause they would make more money just by staying at home and being with their families every night. That's right the cost of everything goes up, cause it's gotta get to these places some how. Just think about cause I sure have. 11 per hr. would do the trick.
I serve and I don't serve alcohol but only make $9 hr yet on every to go order/all sales I am deducted 2percent regardless if I recieve a tip or not.Plus so many people dont tip.It is not fair and the kitchen makes $5 more per hr. Lastly, I slso get deducted for half hr break I dont recieve. I work midnight shift with no compensation for being up all night snd doing dishwashers job.
when minimum wage goes up... it needs to be applied across the board.
I work for a company that does not give huge raises each year... 20-40 cents a hour raise..
so when the minimum wage jumps as it did a year or so ago.
the potential for new hires to enter the building making more, then employees that have worked for the company for years , goes right off the chart.
how is it fair for a person to get hired at minimum wage 6- 7 years ago and then work hard to make 30 cent raises each year compete when the minimum wage jumps $2 per hour. An existing employee would be working 7 years to get that amount of money. There is no fairness in this system at all. I do not believe that making minimum wage jump another $5 will make life easier for people. However I do think that the government needs to address some companies and if they want to do business in BC then they need to pay their employees a fair wage.
Why a 50% raise? Why not 12 or 13 an hour. 15/hr will strangle a lot of small businesses, and corporations will expect much more. I do sympathise with students struggling to afford school and survival or young parents but that should be dealt with in other ways with our taxes. A lot of minimum wage jobs aren't worth 15/hr and neither are some workers
ok so if min wage goes from 10.25 to 15..does my wage go from 16 to 20.25 and if not then this is totally 100% bs and unfair to the rest of us...why should a no brainer job like gas stations and lawn mowing be paid 15...its not worth it especially if my wage stays the same its total bs...instead lower the cost of living and get rid of the ILLEGAL INCOME TAX !!! WW2 IS OVER GET RID OF IT !!!!
yeah let's raise minimum wage so everything becomes more expensive and no one who actually applied themselves gets a wage increase. Obviously everyone who makes 10$ an hour wants a raise fuck this is retarded I want a raise to no one feels bad for me making X amount . Go get a job !!!
Higher minimum pay is good but the effect is proportional to living expenses, since everything will goes up as well, It would be best if they will talked about how to reduce the cost of living, especially rental fee or housing, and food which is the basic necessity.
Any entreprenurs who understands the economy the slightest bit will tell you that if you raise the minimum wage, you are creating higher overhead for the company which will drive them to raise their prices on everything it sounds good to minimum wage workers but all that will happen is people will increase there spending habbits to match there new income and inflation will speed up rapidly to compensate for the higher overhead. Smaller companies could potentially go out of buisness the average person who is below the poverty line right now will still be below the poverty line the line will just be set higher
I work a minimum wage job and I don't think it should be raised to 15 an hour. That's going to just raise the cost in everything. For example Medical service plans, and for health/dental. It will also raise the cost of living. Come on people give your head a shake. If they want to raise the minimum wage at least raise it to 12.25 or 13 an hour
another thing to small bushiness always wonder why its busy on Friday its PAYDAY 15 dollar increase will get people out of the house to go out to eat, pick up groceries, and try out new stores or small bushiness .
Tyler Smeland my opinion right now is to all the small town people to not just the city's we got like 150 people in their early 20's who cant even get a car because they cant afford it and when you do find a job its like they try to rob you for hours so they don't have to pay taxes its actually the worst cycle. with minimal wage up at least we don't get screwed by the part time hours bull shit and wasting 3 hours of your day trying to get to work on a bus.
I think $12. would be a better goal. If the min. wage goes up to $15. many small businesses will not be able to stay in business, thus many workers will be laid off. Then they will have a much bigger problem.
I am of two minds on this issue...
As a (former) small business owner, I know that raising the minimum wage by 50% (such as a $10 to $15 jump would represent) would have forced me out of business, as I would not have been able to afford my staffing costs. This is already taking into account the fact that I was not taking a wage at the time, and working longer hours than any of my staff.
On the other hand, I know several young people who struggle everyday to make ends meet on jobs that pay minimum or close to minimum wage. Many of them have no benefits and work multiple jobs just to put food on the table and a roof overhead for their kids. It is not unusual for employers to cap their weekly hours to avoid paying benefits, and schedule them for 5 hour shifts to avoid having to provide for meal breaks. The result is that these workers have to work 7 days a week, usually at more them one job, and much of their non-working time is spent traveling between jobs instead of spending time with their kids. These are people who desperately need better paying wages and benefits for their families. In addition, often when their children are sick, they risk losing their jobs if they take time off to care for their kids and are forced to send their sick kids to daycare/babysitters. The cost of living is very high in the lower mainland and Victoria areas and something must be done to better the standard of living for these young families.
I have seen suggestions for a graduated minimum, such as basing it on age of the employee and perhaps geographical region, which could be a solution, perhaps providing assistance to small businesses to offset the impact that this would have on them, and providing better rules for providing reasonable working hours and benefits to part-time staff would help. Also, I think that better regulations to prevent employers from firing workers when they are faced with childcare issues and allowing for reasonable accommodation in those cases would also help. We live in one of the richest countries in the world, and we have to do better to provide young families the means to be more financially stable.
just my 2 cents...
As B.C. is the most expensive province to live in, anyone working in low paying jobs will tell you the wage needs to go up. It is not just students living at home working for this wage, everywhere I go I see more and more seniors working to supplement their income. For the few bad apples who don't deserve the wage increase there are so many (thousands) more that do. I also agree that the writers who criticize a low wage earner have no idea of the crap that a low wage earner must put up with. Here in the Okanagan it is very much an attitude if you complain about anything they can replace you today, so workers keep quiet and work overtime for free etc etc to keep a job. Criticism for cashiers? whoever made that comment has no idea the daily verbal abuse they must put up with and have never been in their shoes. Business owners who say they cannot afford to increase wages, maybe they will have to work harder! Working two or three jobs is not possible for everyone, ask anyone with school age children, you cannot work evenings or weekends without huge sacrifices and if you do you will pay babysitters most of your wages!
It has been repeatedly proven that a higher minimum wage actually benefits its economy. Not only do low wage workers/families have a closer to living wage, allowing them to be able to afford better housing, health care and basic needs, but often allows them more purchase power on all items, be they necessity or luxury.
Very few workers in low wage jobs are "lazy" or "stupid". I know many low wage workers and often they are far more conscientious and harder working than higher paid employees. Many work more than one job as well, just to make ends meet. Allowing them to have a decent living wage allows them to have a better work/life balance, and opens up more jobs, and a greater population willing to work those jobs.
For those who really are "lazy", it is unlikely they would keep their jobs, regardless of what wage they are paid.
It has also been repeatedly proven that a higher minimum wage does not significantly affect profitability of businesses unless that profitability is already compromised,
Costs to employers decrease as employees tend to stay at a job longer if they are able to attain better work/life balances....impossible on a minimum wage lower than poverty level. The costs of constantly training new employees can be significant. One job I trained for, the estimated training cost for a single employee was over $20 000. This was not a minimum wage job, but most of the people I started working with are still there after almost 20 years. This can be translated to some degree to the minimum wage jobs. Many people don't aspire to more. That doesn't mean they are lazy, it means they might actually be happy to do that job, provided they can make an actual living on what they are doing.
As a small business owner, and having been, at one time, a minimum wage worker (working as many as 4 jobs to raise my child - Lazy, my foot), I am more than happy to pay a reasonable wage to my employees, and adding a benefit package as well. In the long run, the benefits to me are significant.
Raising minimum wage will simply raise the cost of living once again. People need to deserve the wage they receive. For example, should a cashier make $15 an hour? Out of these 120,000 people making minimum wage how many of them are actually living on their own? Even making $15 an hour will not be diffident to live alone. It will cause more harm than good in my mind to increase minimum wage. It will only benefit our government with increase in tax revenue.
If a company wants to keep good employees, let the company decide to give them a decent wage. Not force the company to overpay the not so perfect employees.
You cannot fire people because you cannot afford to pay them.
Our special nights out are when we can use the A&W coupons to dine at our local A&W. Once and awhile we even splurge on full price. If minimum wage goes to $15 it will make their prices go up. One girl working there is not really worth $10/hour.
The higher the cost of labour the less hours an employer gives the employee and as a result employees need more part time jobs.
Instead force employers to hire full time employees and give them benefits.
By definition, maipulating and bullying to get a wage higher than market rate WILL put others OUT of a job.
Jim Sinclair and his followers are BEING SELFISH in bullying those less fortunate OUT OF A JOB.
It is extremely basic Economics to show that he is wrong, so he MUST know that his public statements are false and misleading.
Unfortunate.
If you look at Denmark, the average McDonald's worker makes $20.00 an hour and the price of a Big Mac is only slightly more than it is here (look it up).
And spare me the 1960's crap; "you're digging ditches because you didn't go to school". There are plenty of educated people who are skilled, sharp thinkers, but still working in poverty.
Your work should be respected, period. And that means a living wage. Anything less is a form of slavery.
To all those saying that we need to better ourselves to deserve more money, that is absurd! I'm a "Jack of all trades" with a several certificates all having to do with my job and I do the work of two people because my boss wont hire more help. Yet somehow he feels I'm worth $13/h and that's after getting a raise. And by the way, those people flipping burgers or whatever grimy job, may or may not work just as hard as you do but they definately take more crap from higher ups and total strangers than you could even dream of. $15/h would help everyone that works hard and is under-appreciated.
To all those who think us people who work for minimum wage are to lazy to go to school and get a degree, everyone who has gone to school to own their own business or what not, they have those "lazy" minimum wage employees working under them. Without minimum wage workers there would be no more fast food industries, restaurant staff etc. So you big shots who seem to think it's ok to call us hard working persons making minimum wage, lazy, just remember we feed you, run your expensive items through the check out, clean your homes and do it all with a smile on our face because we have to, if we want to be able to feed, clothe and have a roof over our family's heads.
Cost of living goes up. Only people that benefit are unskilled people with no ambition to do physical labour. Don't like minimum wage get a skill
For all the people saying go to school and get a real job, most people who have are not even able to use their degrees and are working at McDonalds. At this point, going to school is a gamble on the economy and yes, this WOULD stabilize things more. I make $11.50/hr and even then when you include all the costs of living with some things becoming more of a necessity to live in today's age (i.e. cellphone, credit card, internet), you don't have that much takeaway left to even look at making long-term investments. Also, going to school means you get a student loan that is going to be eating that money you make for years, so you won't even get the benefit of that big paycheck until you are into your 30's and that's if you even find employment in your field. During that time, you will have also probably gone more into debt just trying not to get evicted or not starve as food prices continue to escalate.
If anyone has ever taken an economics course they should understand why this cannot happen. Dream on though. No one will pay 15/hr to flip burgers.
Where do you get $10.25 min. wage? try find a job thats more than 20hrs a week, doesnt that make it $5 hr?
Increasing min wage will increase cost of living -this would further push poverty on people on fixed income and social assistance. Getting more money per hour does not equate to more wealth or spending power.
Also, the government shouldn't source jobs from outside the province/country as well as maybe prevent businesses from bringing in cheap immigrants to work for less than minimum wage. ALSO I think PST and GST should go up BUT income under a certain amount would not have income tax and then people who work under the table would pay the same taxes as most minimum and lower income people.
And to the people who say "get a degree and get a REAL job" obviously have NO CLUE how many people have degrees and there are no jobs in their field anymore. Not to mention young adults are encouraged to make rash decisions about what they want to do, they invest money and then they might find later on that it isn't what they what to do OR they get laid off and their field isn't hiring. The world isn't black and white. Going to school doesn't guarantee you a decent wage.
The government probably would need more funding so legalizing pot would then be able to help financially.
Take the money and restart the school hot lunch program.
At least the money will get to the children that need it.
I think we need to focus on preventing things like housing costs and necessary foods from going UP as well as raise the wage a little bit more. Huge profit companies need to be /encouraged/ to invest profit into wage increases which I can't think of a way unless everything was unionized. While landlords aren't allowed to raise their rent beyond a certain amount each year, they certainly aren't charging a FAIR amount before they then start raising it. Minimum wage should be defined differently, such as a starting wage that increases or a wage that you start with if you have ZERO experience and after a year or so you start getting a wage increase. It isn't fair to have people work for years for you and never increase their wage.
I am currently in a three year diploma program right now for my career and when I'm done starting wage is 18 dollars an hour. I'm putting all of this hard work in to have a real career to be making 3 dollars more than people with no motivation to go to school? Doesn't seem right. If minimum wage goes up all other wages should go up. If you want to make better money GO TO SCHOOL. There are student loans for people who can't afford it ..
Raising the wages simply forces companies to raise prices. Most small companies do not have a high enough profit margin as it is. So between higher prices and higher taxes (make more they take more) people would be right where they were before. If the gov actually wants to step in and help they need to help with lowering fuel cost and energy costs which is a huge part of why food is so expensive and makes up the largest part of the average families expenses next to housing.
I think minimum wage should be equal for all people who make minimum wage no matter what job they have. Whether or not they serve alcohol or work in a department store or gas station, we all work hard to make ends meet so minimum wage should be the same for all who work for minimum wage. For us servers that get tips, we can not depend on that. We do not know if we go home with $5 or $50. That is a sad excuse for servers to not be equal with making minimum wage, doesn't matter if gets raised, everyone, servers or not, should make the same minimum wage if that's what they make.
30 years ago I was making minimum wage of $7.00/hr. That means it has increased $3.25 in 30 years. Many educated people are in minimum wage jobs, so that is not the issue. 3 of my daughters work for very small businesses and all 3 of them make much more than minimum wage, because the people they work for are fair and are not looking for enormous profits on the backs of their loyal employees. It is the huge companies like Walmart and Value Village and the list goes on.....who have huge profits with owners living in multi-million dollar homes that refuse to pay their employees a descent wage. They could easily pay more to their employees and stop lining their own wallets. Minimum wage earers are the back bone of our society not the lower class civilians that should suck it up and accept the scaps that fall from the wealthy mans table!!
Raising the wage in B.C shouldn't happen.
Like stated before, if you want more money, you have to work for it. Nothing just gets handed to you.
People need to stop being so damn lazy.
Hey business owner.
Not everyone does jack at their job.
I work very hard, for a minimum wage.
I work 3 jobs!
I have two kids to raise too!
I also have two college diplomas and a degree.
Getting an education isn't always the answer.
If min wage goes up, consumers will have more money to spend, thus the economy thrives.
It's a win win.
Let's get serious here. If the min wage goes up to that my business will be done. I'm in a business where I can't raise the prices to cover a raise like that.
If employees want to make more money they should do more for their employers not just do zip and have the government help them.
If u don't like what u make quit And go to school and get a education to get a better job.
Listen raising minimum wages will not help at all...It will cause more people to shoplift...I am a minimum wage worker...I think what will help is if companies would have to have more full time staff...If you are having problems making ends meet then get a higher paying job or work 2 jobs...I have 3 jobs and I work 7 days a week...I am also helping as much as I can with my children's collage education...If minimum wages go so does the cost of living...Put on my big boy/girl pants stop complaining if you need more money then don't expect the government to do it for you fix your own problems...
I think all the people who voted NO,it could hurt job creation in our province are business owners.
You say that $13 an hour would meet the poverty line, what about me on a PWD pension and 60 years old.
My wage works out to $5.66 and hour. How about raising PWD or CPP to $13 an hour!
Most of my money goes to my landlord.