Q: In September B.C.'s minimum wage will increase 20 cents to $10.45 per hour. Could the City of Prince George impose a different minimum wage than the province, like several cities in the U.S. have done?
A: In September, B.C.'s lowest-paid workers will receive a raise for the first time since 2011.
Under the new legislation, the provincial minimum wage will increase from $10.20 per hour to $10.45 per hour. In addition, every year after this year the provincial minimum wage will increase based on inflation, as measured by the B.C. Consumer Price Index.
So if in 2015 there is a fairly average two per cent increase in inflation, the province's minimum wage will increase by two per cent in 2016 - rounded to the nearest five cents. The minimum wage for workers who primarily serve alcohol -ie. bar waiters and waitresses -will be $1.25 lower than the general minimum wage. So in September, the minimum wage for liquor servers will be $9.20 per hour.
No city anywhere in Canada could have a minimum wage lower than the province or territory it is located in. Because of the way Canada's federalist system works, municipalities derive their authority from provincial legislation.
In addition, in Canada, legislation from a higher level of government always trumps legislation from lower levels of government.
But if Prince George city council decided that workers here deserve a higher minimum rate of pay then the provincial minimum, could the city pass a bylaw to require businesses pay a higher wage? Or perhaps make paying a higher wage a requirement for issuing a business license?
It's a timely question, given that on Wednesday Seattle will become the latest U.S. city to impose a municipal minimum wage. Seattle's minimum wage for large employers will increase to $15 per hour -more than 50 per cent higher than the $9.47 per hour mandated by the State of Washington. For small businesses, the wage increase will be phased in over a number of years.
More than a dozen cities in the United States have minimum wages higher than their state-legislated minimums -including major cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Currently no cities in Canada have minimum wages higher than the province or territory they are located in. However, the notion is drawing attention of labour advocates and economists north of the border.
In a December article by the Toronto Star, economist Richard Florida - who leads the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management -argued that municipal minimum wages are one way to tackle the massive differences in cost of living between cities within a province.
"The cost of living in these communities are so different, that we could index [the minimum wage] to living costs,"the Star quoted Florida as saying. "If you're living in one of these less expensive cities and working in a service job, it's easier to make ends meet."
The Star article cited the $500,000 difference in price between an average new single-detached home in Toronto and Windsor, Ont.
Here in B.C. the differences are even more extreme. According to the B.C. government statistics, the average price in 2014 for a single detached house in Prince George was $224,834, while in Vancouver an average single-detached home cost $1.37 million.
Even in the less pricey parts of the Lower Mainland, like Surrey and Delta, average homes were $600,000-plus.
And yet Prince George and the Lower Mainland have the same minimum wage.
According to Statistics Canada, the percentage of workers receiving minimum wage in Canada has increased from five per cent in 1997 to 6.7 per cent in 2013. In B.C. over the same time, the number of minimum wage earners increased from 6.1 per cent to 6.4 per cent.
Women are more likely to make minimum wage then men (eight per cent verses 5.5 per cent).
People aged 15 to 19 years old were most likely to work for minimum wage (50.2 per cent worked at minimum wage in 2013, compared with only 31.5 per cent in 1997). However, 2.8 per cent of Canadians are making minimum wage during their prime, money-earning years (35 to 64 years old).
Unsurprisingly, the lower a person's level of education the higher the chance they work for minimum wage. In 2013, 20.4 per cent of Canadians without a high school diploma worked for minimum wage (up from 11.3 per cent in 1997).
Graduating high school literally halves your chances of working for minimum wage (10.2 per cent in 2013, up from 5.9 per cent in 1997).
Getting any kind of postsecondary diploma further cuts your chance of working for minimum wage by two-thirds, to only 3.4 per cent (up from 2.7 per cent of postsecondary diploma holders in 1997).
While many university graduates joke about the employability of their degrees, they are the least likely to work for the minimum. Only 2.6 per cent of university degree holders worked for minimum wage in 2013, up from 1.6 per cent in 1997.
Only 3.4 per cent of full time workers earned minimum wage in 2013, compare with 21.8 per cent of part time workers.
Across the board- all age groups, genders, levels of education, working full time or part time- Canadians were more likely to receive minimum wage in 2013 than in 1997, according to Statistics Canada.
With the number of people trying to survive on minimum wage increasing and massive regional disparities in costs of living, what can B.C. municipalities do to ensure workers in their communities get paid a living wage? Not much, according to city director of legal and regulatory services Walter Babicz.
The B.C. Community Charter is the provincial legislation that allows municipalities powers to regulate businesses, Babicz said in an email.
"While the Community Charter gives municipal councils a general power to regulate in relation to business, it does not grant the power to prohibit or impose requirements on businesses, except in specific circumstances," Babicz said. "The Community Charter does not include any specific authority for B.C. municipalities to establish minimum wage rules, and the power to impose a minimum wage on businesses does not fit clearly within any of the general regulatory powers under the Community Charter."
However, one B.C. city is taking action to encourage higher wages for workers in the city.
On Jan. 1, 2011 the City of New Westminister enacted its Living Wage Policy. Under the living wage policy, all city staff and private service providers to the city which work on city premises must pay a minimum, livable wage which is calculated by New Westminster city staff annually. In 2014, that living wage was $19.62 per hour -nearly double the provincial minimum.
Contractors looking to bid on applicable city contracts must sign a declaration saying they are, and will stay, in compliance with the city's Living Wage Policy.
City of New Westminister purchasing manager Roy Moulder said the policy primarily applies to road flagging contractors and private security guards patrolling city facilities.
Moulder said the number of non-city employee effected is small, "certainly not 50 (workers), 30 maybe."
One of the biggest concerns raised by right-wing opponents of higher minimum wages is that it increases costs and encourages employers to cut positions.
Moulder said the City of New Westminister hasn't tracked the impact the policy has had on its contract costs, and had no information on if the higher wage had impacted the number of jobs at companies contracting to the city.
So, while B.C. cities can require businesses who bid on providing services to the city to pay a higher wage, they don't have the legal authority to increase the minimum wage for all workers. However, if B.C. municipalities lobby the provincial government to change the Community Charter to allow it, perhaps one day B.C. cities could set minimum wages based on local conditions, rather than relying on a provincial one-wage-fits-all solution.
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