Despite a series of consultations and mounting pressure from some small business owners to delay course, the Alberta government is holding firm on its minimum wage implementation plan, with the next increase set for October.
“What we heard (in consultations) was universal support for supporting lower wage Albertans and the need for hardworking Albertans to be able to make ends meet,” Labour Minister Christina Gray said. “There were different opinions on how to get there.
“(But) someone working a full-time job deserves to be able to take care of their family and should not be living in poverty.”
According to a survey conducted by Restaurants Canada, two-thirds of Albertans indicated the planned increase of $15 per hour by 2018 would be too much for businesses to handle with the present state of the economy.
Gray called Restaurants Canada a “well-funded lobby group” and said the implementation plan was based on research that indicated raising the minimum wage would positively impact the economy.
“We have been doing a great deal of review of the research,” she said. “Most of the (research) shows positive effects from raising the minimum wage, and little negative effects on overall employment is what the most recent research tends to indicate.”
The next phase in the government’s implementation plan will see the minimum wage increasing by $1 per hour on Oct. 1, up to $12.20 per hour – the highest among Canadian provinces, and the third highest in the country, after Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. The move will also scrap the liquor server rate, which is currently set at $10.70 per hour.
“It’s kind of (counteractive). Everything else is going to go up,” said Tiffany LaRocke, a bartender at the BJ Cafe in Beiseker. “In a sense, it really depends on if everything else goes up. It (could) benefit me on a bills aspect.”
Some restaurant owners have voiced concern about what impact the plan as presented could have on their bottom line. Andres Munoz, owner and chef of the Langdon-based Il Bricco Italian restaurant, said the timing of the increase “could not be worse.”
“The NDP should give us a little break to the small businesses,” he said. “I have this little restaurant with 40 seats. I can not absorb those losses. Franchises, (it’s no big deal) in some cases, if one or two lose money. A mom and pop business like mine, I’m here seven days a week.”
The minimum wage will rise again on Oct. 1, 2017, to $13.60 per hour, before reaching $15 on Oct. 1, 2018. Weekly and monthly rates will also rise by equivalent amounts.
“I work dinner by myself, I’m a chef, I’m a hostess, I’m a bartender, I’m anything,” Munoz said. “(With everything), it’s going to be only 15 per cent profit on $500. Fifteen per cent is $75. You may as well stay home and watch soccer or football.”
