Dear Editor:
On Oct. 29, the provincial Minister of Labour announced an increase in the general minimum wage on Nov. 1 to $9.50 per hour - an increase previously decided upon by Premier Christy Clark in March, shortly after she became premier and announced a May 1 adjustment from $8 to $8.75.
There are three fundamental deficiencies in the government's minimum wage policy: 1) the general minimum wage is still too low; 2) the lower minimum wage for liquor servers is discriminatory; and 3) the exclusion of hand harvesting farmworkers from the general minimum hourly wage is discriminatory and out-of-date.
The general minimum wage is too low by any objective measure such as the poverty line or measures of a "living wage."
The government's refusal to increase the minimum wage by the rate of increase in the cost of living between 2002 and 2010 meant that minimum wage earners saw a decline in their real income by 16.5 per cent - one of the factors contributing to an increase in income inequality in B.C.
There are six provinces and territories with higher minimum wages than B.C.
For example, the minimum wage in Newfoundland is $10 and in Nunavut $11.
In addition, there is still no mechanism for predictable annual adjustments to the minimum wage, such as setting it at the low income cut-off for B.C., a standard that currently would put the minimum wage above $11 per hour.
Bowing to pressure from hotel and restaurant employers, the government introduced in May of this year a new, lower discriminatory minimum wage for liquor servers.
The new May 1 liquor server rate was set 25 cents per hour below the general minimum wage, and on Nov. 1 will be 75 cents per hour below the general minimum wage.
There is no rational or objective basis for this new form of discrimination.
Liquor servers are not the only service workers who receive tips and gratuities. Not all liquor services receive the full amount of the tips that are left for their service.
Tips are not wages, therefore employers do not include tips and gratuities in the calculation of Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance contributions.
There has been no research into the tipping income that all B.C. liquor servers receive to justify a lower minimum wage.
Farmworkers who hand harvest certain fruit, vegetable, berry or daffodil crops are grossly discriminated against by being excluded from the general hourly minimum wage.
Instead, their minimum wage is based on an outdated schedule of piece work rates that include four per cent for statutory holidays.
If these farmworkers work on a statutory holiday, they do not receive premium pay as all other workers do.
This wage discrimination is compounded by the fact that temporary foreign workers who harvest the same crops are guaranteed an hourly minimum wage.
It has long been recognized that these minimum piece rates do not provide farmworkers with wages that over the course of a season are equal to the general hourly minimum wage.
However, once again bowing to pressure from farm operators and farm labour contractors, the government has delayed providing a Nov. 1 adjustment to hand harvesting piece rates pending the outcome of a study into the system.
Advocates for farmworkers are unanimous that either the piece rate system be abolished altogether or the general hourly minimum wage cover all farmworkers regardless of the crops that they harvest.
The provincial minimum wage discrimination against liquor servers and hand harvesters should be ended because it impacts on some of the most vulnerable and exploited workers in B.C. that are primarily women, immigrant, part-time, casual or seasonal workers.
David Fairey, B.C. Employment Standards for the Next Decade Coalition, Vancouver
