To me $15 is a little much. So what is this province thinking, higher minimum the more people will move here for it? That will make a lot of small businesses layoff more staff because they can’t afford that . But that’s my own opinion.

is it a crazy idea to think people who make min wage may be able to pay their ever increasing bills, rent and be able to eat too. 15$ an hour still wont be enough to take your kids to the dentist.

Most of the minimum wage jobs are in the retail industry, so perhaps they should unionize and bargain for higher wages and benefits, then the increases could be paid for by the companies and by those who buy the products.

With a $15/hr minimum wage people would be able to participate and not merely subsist in our economy. People could save up for education, buy cars and houses and maybe even start a family. At $10/hr, people can barely afford rent and food. This is why we have 338,000 TFW (temporary foreign workers) in Canada.

Herbster. Give is a break. Everyone in Canada with the exception of first nations came from some other Country. We were all foreign workers at one time in our history, temporary or otherwise.

I doubt if all the $10.00 per hour jobs would be filled by so called local workers. What we need is for business to pay a fair wage, and consumers to quit expecting to get everything they buy on the cheap.

Palopu the first nations came from Asia..has already been proven.. So we are all immigrants.. At one time $10 was a working wage..

We all know with every increase in the minimum wage prices increase to cover this cost. So we all fall further behind, with the government charging us more for less we have to pay for more out of our pockets..

Palopu

With 338,000 TFW’s the labour market is distorted. Hard to unionize when there are over 300,000 people willing to accept low wages (and a millions more willing to get their TFW visas). The only way to raise minimum wage at this point is to legislate it. Oh, and stop voting for Harper and his Conservative Government who extended the TFW program to unskilled workers and increased its size 10 fold.

With all the baby boomers voting Conservative, I would remind you all that when you started out you had the benefit of good paying jobs to start your families. If you want good opportunities for your kids and grandkids, stop voting Conservative. Your choice, more grandkids or more TFW’s, but you can’t have both and super cheap meals at Timmies and McDo’s at the same time.

is there an election on the horizon??????

If you raised the min wage to $15.00, there would be massive layoffs. How smart is that?

The Australian minimum wage is $16.87/hr. The Australian unemployment rate is 6.4% Are Australians smarter than us?

Seattle has a minimum wage of 15.00 US,that’s equivalent to about 18.75 canadian.

They have the fastest growing economy in the states.

Canadian unemployment rate is 6.6%

Minimum wage earners spend all their money, whether 10 or 15 dollars/hr. Raise minimum wage= immediate boost to the economy.

People need to start family planning a little better. Don’t drop out of school, pop out a couple of kids and then say “crap how am I going to pay for this on minimum wage?”

Considering that there is no new industry in Prince George, and no new jobs, with the possibility of more downsizing, I would say that the minimum wage is moot,.

If we don’t get the economy growing, we are all going to go broke.

Majority of jobs in this town are now Civil Servant jobs paid for by the taxpayer. No jobs for the taxpayers, then no jobs for the others.

The Canadian birth rate is 1.61, lower than China’s 1.66 (with a one child policy), and far below replacement rate of 2.1 needed to maintain population. So I guess the Harper Conservative plan is economic sterilization of the Canadian poor, and increased immigration.

Wage increases don’t work to make lives better. Wage increase is just a bigger number to go farther in debt with. Whats needed is to stop the greed from the top 1 % wealthiest people and spread it around a little more.

More money means less jobs in the end.

Minimum wage increases means more money for the people who need it. Minimum wage increases are one way to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. Agree that the top 1% don’t need anymore.

Well hopefully your not going to whining about the lack of service or the increased cost associated with the increase “herbster” hopefully the government doesn’t forget to increase pensions for the people who actually contributed to building this country.

Increasing minimum wage by 30% will put upward pressure on wages across the board. Those in seconadary manufacturing currently earning $18 to $20 will want a big increase as they would be “barely above minimum wage” and up the ladder till everyone gets a boost.

This will cause the regional inflation rate to go up in order to cover wage increases so at the end of the day those at the bottom will be right back where they started.

With the $15 rate in Seattle teens are finding after school jobs are virtually non existant. Working a few hours after school provides valuable work experience and something to put on the resume. Would not reflect too well if a 19 y.o. kid tries to enter the workforce, looking for a fulltime job with nothing more than babysitting or lawn mowing on the resume.

http:**www.metroseattlejobs.com*jobs.asp

I count over 2500 jobs in restaurant and wholesale and retail which traditionally pay minimum wage. So much for that theory Sparrow!

And your theory that everyone else will want more? Does not seem to be borne out by Australian experience which has inflation rates very similar to ours.

Walmart has a pre-tax profit of 25 billion. If every employee got a $5 an hour raise, their profit would be 10 billion. Does anyone think they would go out of business because of this?

Actually Walmart would pay out far less, as the employees would buy even more stuff from their employer. Given that Walmart has a 25% gross profit on retail, for every increase of $5 spent at their stores, they make an additional $1.25. Plus their employees probably wouldn’t be scheming to shoot up malls in Halifax.

You sound like a skipping record “herbster” sparrow is right, I also believe that is what will happen.

Who cares about Walmart. Eventually places like walmart & costco will take over the smaller stores that can’t compete with the high cost of paying their employees what the big retailers pay, than watch what will happen.

Maverick1965

Conservatives don’t like to deal with reality. They just want to believe what they want to believe. That is why Harper has muzzled and fired scientists throughout the federal government. Why ruin a good story with facts?

I guess you figure the NDP is the answer Ha,ha,ha lol

Herbster. Guess what?? From the reading of your posts one can only conclude that you believe what you want to believe. Are you saying that no one else can believe what they want to believe, except you.

The NDP would have fired some people except they have never been in power, so have never been able to exercise that authority. The Liberals fired some people, and of course some of them were sent to jail.

The Harper government flooded the country with TFWs and the only reason was to have cheap labour for all his friends. The price of everything keeps going up and if wages don’t you are going to have a sick looking country in the future. If you can’t afford $15 an hr maybe you shoud not be in business.

Maverick

At this point anyone would be better than Harper. That is the sad truth.

Palopu

I am always up for a debate. If you tell me that you believe something because that is what you believe, then I will make fun of you, because you are spouting nonsense. What Liberals went to jail? I can think of a lot of convicted Conservatives, and I am sure we will soon see more!

At a boy Herbster keep there feet to the fire. I guess all those PC don’t mind the profit that goes into the pocket of the Walton’s and their like. They dream that someday I to will be a Walton or I could be.
Cheers

Let’s be realistic, people do not go into business to provide employment they go into business to make money.
All this talk about big businesses like Costco and Walmart really misses the point.Probably 75% of those minimum wage jobs are created by small mom and pop businesses, smaller footprint chain retail stores, and the fast food industry.
All of these businesses run on pretty tight margins, with the cost of labour being their largest single cost item, so any increase in wages hit the bottom line pretty quickly. That increased cost has to be accounted for somewhere. If the market will support increased prices then it’s the consumer that covers it, if not the business will more than likely reduce employees (JOBS) to offset the increased wage cost. In a robust growing economy price growth will absorb those increases, but in a shrinking or stagnant economy increased wages usually leads to decreased employment!
As for Walmart, nice of people to volunteer 60% of their profits to wage increases…tell that to the shareholders …ask them if they are willing to forgo their profits.

NyteHawkk

We have labour laws that forbid the use of child labour, and we already have minimum wage laws. All labour laws make it harder for businesses to make money, but we have them because we want some sort of society that we can be proud of.

A higher minimum wage would impact all businesses equally, with no one business accruing an unfair advantage.

Again you overlook the advantages that putting money into the hands of poor people has. Trickle down economics is Conservative bullsh*t. The real change happens when the poorest gain economic traction. Henry Ford understood this 100 years ago when he raised the wages for his workers so that they could afford to buy his cars. By the way, the wage he paid them translates into about $150/day now, far more than the proposed $15/hr.

In Seattle where they raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour that translated into the fasted growing small business sector in North America. Apparently small businesses do well when everyone is a potential customer.

A strong small business sector, means a strong middle class, which makes for a resilient economy in the long run.

Herbster for your information I go to Bellingham on a regular bases and I do know that some of the big box store stsrt their employees off at $11. an hour some $12.25 . Their groceries are by far cheaper also all the other things I have bough there i.e. abox of 18 eggs are $4.89 at Superstore here , 2 boxes for $4.00 State side . The only reason why Bc is puttting up wages is there is an election coming so Crusty Clark and Shirley Bond will have to get in some more photo shoots . Oregon just raised their wages to $15 . an hour and they have no taxes .

Fedup2015, I’m really really really sad to hear that you take your Canadian dollars out of Canada and that you spend them state side!!

I eagerly await the pending condemnation of your actions, from the likes of Herbter, Eagleone, oldman1 and Retired02!

These die hard socialists should be outraged that you are not supporting our Canadian economy. We need you spending your money here, so that you support local business and pay local taxes, all to support our economy and our public sector unionized workforce!!

These people don’t work for free, in fact they work for above average wages! So, stop going to Bellingham on a regular basis! Spend you money and pay your taxes here!! Our overpaid Union workers need you!!