minimum wage

[joel]

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/mi ... story.html

be up to $10.25 by may 2012.

[geForce]

With the rise of the minimum wage, does that require wages that are above minimum to rise with it?

For example, if someone is making $11/hour currently, will they get bumped up to $13.25/hour after the minimum wage increase?

I have mixed feelings about this min. wage increase. I think it should we should be on par with all other provinces in Canada, but I don't think it should be done so suddenly after so many years of no increases. As with so many political decisions lately, I think the timing really sucks too. This is definitely going to cause cost increases leading to loss of jobs in the short run especially in this market right now.

[se7entse7en]

"She said the first hike in the minimum wage will come May 1, when it rises to $8.75 per hour.
It will increase again on Nov. 1 to $9.50, then to $10.25 on May 1, 2012.
Clark said she will remove the province’s training wage, which paid new workers $6 per hour."

I wouldn't really call that 'sudden'. IMO it's been a long time in coming.
No, if you're currently making $11/hr there's no obligation for you to get bumped up at all.
I think getting rid of that training wage is a big plus too. I've heard of employers (cheap employers no doubt) who'd lay off employees after 6 months just so they wouldn't have to pay them $8/hr. That's just dirty.

[supersuk]

nope, people at $11 usually dont get bumped up. If they do get bumped up, its not by a whole lot.

I was making around minimum last time around they bumped it up. Kinda sucks if you work a year or two to make $10, then suddenly a new guy comes in and makes just as much as you do.

Plus, this is gonna increase the cost of most services, reduction in quality of services, and increase unemployment...

I'm gonna tip less.

[se7entse7en]

How many businesses rely on paying their employees the bare minimum wage anyway?

"Just under 5% of BC paid workers were earning minimum wage or less, in 1998 through 2000." - http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/pubs/eet/eet0109.pdf

It's an old stat, but I suspect it wouldn't be tooooo far off.

[supersuk]

So how many BC paid workiers earn $10 or less... because its anyone within minimum to $10 thats going to experience an increase. Gotta account for that.

[geForce]

[se7entse7en]

Lots of stats here - http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/pubs/eet/eet1001.pdf

The low end of the scale:
Most frequent fulltime wage - Food and Beverage Servers $10.15

[supersuk]

hmmm.. got me thinking.. how much would they jack up minimum wage for you to work a second brainless job on the weekend.

Like lets say something at mcdicks or a pizza shop (where you get free food) and you dont care about your performance.

make some extra cash, get some freebees.. make a decent minimum wage lol

[nature boy]

man alive 10 bucks is high for minimum. i personally don't think that it needs to be that high, we need entry level positions for those who are starting out.

can you imagine a 16 year old kid at his first part time job making almost 11 bucks an hour asking if you want fries with that?

the only people that this will _seem_ to help are those kids. and i only say "seem" because i have a feeling that businesses are going to have to tighten their belts and hire less people and just push the people that they have to be more productive. which means less entry level jobs for those kids.

[supersuk]

or cheap out on quality of service.

Sorry guys, since our staff is making 2 bucks more, we're gonna have to cut back on the amount of cheese we serve on our pizzas
.

[Duncan]

you think 10.25 is high for minimum wage? australia has 13.74 as their min wage... although they don't believe in tipping there....

i'm indifferent about this hike... i think the only thing it'll affect is the service industry. i agree with keian, we're just gonna see a cut back on the quality of food/services at lower end joints... raising min wage will only put more weed buying money into highschool kids' pockets...

in the end, everything will balance itself out... which means that the costs of living in vancouver will become even more ridiculous.... i can see this happening..

a middle class restaurant will hike up prices of food citing the rise in min wage when their staff is already being paid $10-11/hr. They didn't even have a hike in staffing costs but they're trying to jump on the "everything is so expensive" bandwagon as an excuse to charge more for their services... they'll just try to rake in more money off the public...

[nature boy]

lol they'll be doing that anyway.

but yeah, businesses will be trying to find ways to recoup that $2 an hour in some ways, and you better believe it won't be out of their pockets.

[joel]

family income is family income... $2/hr that teenager is making is $2 less that they need from their parents income...

also if you believe the majority of the people making minimum wage is teenagers then it's likely that money will go back into local businesses someway or another... how many teens are there that just saving in long term investments or investing their money abroad. One way or another it'll probably end up back in the hands of the local economy.

[joel]

the price of local goods and services can always only go as high as the demand for it... if restaurants/etc get too pricey eventually people will stop going or stop paying for it... minimum wage hike or not.