The Province increased the minimum wage to $12.20 for all Albertans Oct. 1. The increase is part of the Province’s plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2018 and eliminate the lower wage for liquor servers.
Before Oct. 1, minimum wage earners were making $11.20 an hour and liquor servers were making $10.70. But the increase has some small business owners concerned.
Andres Munoz, owner of Ibricco – an Italian restaurant in Langdon – said he’s worried the increase will force him to cut hours and run the restaurant himself.
“The economy is not doing well. The food went up a fair amount. The profit is shrinking. Anywhere you look around you have to pay for this, you have to pay fees for that – everything’s going up,” Munoz said. “I didn’t change the prices for the last three years because I’m kind of worried some people will say, ‘Oh, well it’s too expensive to go there’.”
Dieter Gesell, owner of Westcreek Pub in Chestermere, said the increase will force him to lay off employees and work more hours himself. He said he had to do the same thing last October when the minimum wage increased from $10.20 to $11.20 and from $9.20 to $10.70 for liquor servers.
“I started doing some of the work myself to save money and it looks like I’ll be doing the same thing this October. So, basically I’ll be working more hours and my wife will be working more hours,” Gesell said. “I can’t afford to charge more for my products. A lot of people are getting laid off and I can’t raise prices to make up for the minimum wage.”
He said if a high school student is making $15 an hour washing dishes, a kitchen manager is going to want to make $22 an hour.
“What will happen eventually is prices will go up and up and people will have one beer instead of two and they’ll have a burger instead of a burger and an appetizer and businesses will shut down,” Gesell said.
“In certain times they can implement something like this but not when the economy has gone to crap and 100,000 people have been laid off in the oilpatch. The bottom line is owners are going to work more hours for less money.”
Beiseker Mayor Ray Courtman said the increase will benefit minimum wage earners but not small business owners.
“Businesses are struggling to stay afloat as it is right now and now they have to pay their employees more. And that’s not just the minimum wage employees, that’s everybody because employees who are now making $12 will have to be given an increase too,” Courtman said. “The way the economy is right now, I think it’s coming at a wrong time.”
The Province is also providing self-employment training programs for Albertans looking to start their own business, in response to the current downtown in the economy.
“If it was implemented properly I could see that being beneficial,” Gesell said.
“But during this economy I wouldn’t risk starting another business.”
