Minimum wage increasing to $15.65 hourly

A 2.8% increase will also be given to people who make daily wages like live-in camp leaders, in-home support workers and resident caretakers.

Agricultural workers picking specific hand-harvested fruit will also see a wage increase. Those picking foods like apricots, pears, apples, mushrooms and several other crops will see a 2.8% piece-rate pay increase.

A worker shortage was and remains a problem. Many lost their jobs and did not come back. One study last year found that some of those workers moved to different industries. A problem that the minister says is the biggest issue for businesses.

“I think when we provide support to the workers, [we] make it more attractive for workers to move here to British Columbia. We’ve seen more people are moving to British Columbia last year, than in the previous 30 years.” said Baines.

But there are concerns that the hike will only be a problem for businesses. In that same study from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 47% of small businesses tried to increase wages but it still did not help with the labour shortage.

Covid support from the government are slowly going away as the pandemic nears to its end and calls are coming in for the government to make it a law to tie in minimum wage with the inflation rate.

“We do have option to go with the legislative route and we haven’t made that decision yet but in coming weeks we will be making that decision. Either go year by year in OIC or in legislation and make it permanent.” said Baines.

In 2017 British Columbia’s minimum wage was $11.35. The several wage increases over the last five years have benefited almost 400,000 workers, 52% of who were over the age of 25 and 58% were women according to numbers from the Ministry of Labour.

by Thomas Doucet

Minimum wage increasing to $15.65 hourly

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