this town sucks

Start with 9 bucks and see how it goes.
It is long overdue.
When a province that is probably the most expensive in Canada to live in, has the lowest minimum wage,something is obviously wrong.

When you increase the minimum wage, prices will rise. And they will rise at a faster rate than the rate the wage has.

Aside from the increase in contributions by the EMPLOYER to the CPP and EI funds, (matched dollar for dollar taken from the employee for CPP, and $ 1.40 for the employer to every dollar from the employee for EI), there will be a further increase in entirely EMPLOYER paid costs, of which Worksafe BC premiums are one that apply to every employer.

Mandated Holiday Pay and Statutory Holidays are another. The "cost" of additional money required to operate is another. It's NOT just $ 1.50 more an hour coming out of the employer's pocket if the minimum wage goes to $ 10 from
$ 8.50. It's $ 1.50 PLUS these other costs. Which have to be passed on.

No employer of minimum waged workers will be able to swallow those increased costs otherwise ~ they'll flow through to consumers in the form of increased prices.

Additionally, how do you raise up those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder without those who have climbed up a little further already also demanding an increase? The bottom is catching up to them, and that denigrates the income they are currently making.

It may well mean happy times are here again for Jim Sinclair, the BC Fed, and all it's member Unions, as they re-engage in the classic "class struggle" that can never be won.

But does it really benefit the "workers" they're supposed to be representing? Who is really ever advantaged by "higher prices"?

Why not look at a way to "lower prices" to the consumer leaving wage rates, and the current rate of profit ON TURNOVER taken by the employer, where they are?

By doing so, we would be INCREASING the 'purchasing power' of every dollar received. Not the exact opposite, which is the failed path those calling for an increase in minimum wage are only going to achieve.

The cost of living is so low in BC and getting cheaper everyday.I think we should lower min wage and require all workers at that new lower wage to be punched in the face at the start of every shift. Then follow this with a tax raise and a huge hike in wages for all politicians. After this we replace all politicians with business owners or industrial lobbyists.

socredible, your argument for higher minimum wages translating into higher cost of living does'nt appear to have played out in the other provinces as their minimum wages are higher and cost of living is lower.

Why the hell can the rest of the country have higher minimum wage and we BC'ers can not! Those businesses seem to cope. Did anyone ask them how they cope?
This government keeps spouting off that this province is "The Best Place on Earth"! How do you figure that when all we have is slave labour and rising taxes and a leader whom never listens to his people when they are screaming "Help Us, Don't Tax Us"!

You say" Why not look at a way to "lower prices" to the consumer leaving wage rates, and the current rate of profit ON TURNOVER taken by the employer, where they are?

Save-On put their prices up 300% just before the HST came in, I know my coffee whitener jumped 3 bucks. Did wages? No, Taxes did. Thank god for Walmart and their cheap bread, milk, eggs and butter. I hope that didn't come from China also.

It makes no wonder these youths turn to dealing drugs. They've watched their parents struggle to keep food on the table and the lights on. 16 hour days to make 16 bucks an hour. "Oh" you say "Go back to school lazy ass". Well all these colleges are crooks and the courses are ridiculously over priced. I wanted to take a course, not another mortgage payment.

60 bucks to take a test for a gr. 12 equivalent and you miss it by 2 points, what part of Mature Student kicks in eh? Not everyone is a scholar! 60, I could have kept in my pocket! I bet everyone's last dollar that I could out work and out last any one of these new students with just on the job training.

You business owners need to watch "Undercover Boss", apply yourselves,wash a few toilets, deal with the public ( you may even see yourself) listen to your employee's. Not all of them are trying to skive you, but most of them are and you wonder why they do.

All the same, when you make no money, you don't spend no money. Here's to all the middle class, were not worth 10 bucks an hour. Soon there will be no middle class. To all of you that don't like my comment **** ***

When people show a little initiative and try a little harder instead of trying to "skive" the owner as hammmy says, perhaps they will get ahead.

I have managed a company here for 20 years and we pay well over the minimum wage to start,for a job that really doesn't take much more skill than to read and write. Whenever we advertise for workers, most of the applications we get are from people that have had their E.I. cut off or people that can't get along with others. We offer benefits such as medical after 3 months, and full benefits after 9 months. (dental, life insurance etc.)

I believe that 90% of the people that earn a minimum wage deserve exactly that because they do not want to better themself. They all expect the government to look after them.

Socredible is correct, all this will do is raise prices. A lot of companies, including the one I work for, are owned by shareholders and if we don't make enough profit, they will sell their shares and buy something else that is making more. If we have to pay too much in wages, then we have to recoup that somewhere in order for the shareholders to keep investing in us.

I know it is a vicious circle but raising wages is not the answer as far as I am concerned.

I'd like to know how many places actually pay minimum wage. Even most of the fast food joints start higher.

The only ones I know that pay minimum wage are friends that hire students for summer jobs. IMO $8 is fine for teenagers starting out. With 4% vacation pay it is actually $8.32/hr. Then there are the extra employer costs as well. That's alot of money to pay for a nanny. Some of these teenagers can't drive yet so then they have to be picked up and dropped off.

I think there are enough job openings out there that "supply & demand" makes it necessary to pay your good employees well or you'll lose them.

Home hardware on the hart 8 bucks an hour, the esso stations, the dollar stores shall I go on . Do you want names? Thats with experience in the sevice industry.

Hammy:- "You business owners need to watch "Undercover Boss", apply yourselves,wash a few toilets, deal with the public ( you may even see yourself) listen to your employee's. Not all of them are trying to skive you, but most of them are and you wonder why they do."
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Hammy, most small business owners are NOT in a position to be an "Undercover Boss" ala the supposed 'reality' of some television show.

We generally didn't inherit some multi-million dollar business that the 'old man' built, then croaked and left to us, free gratis. Without our ever having had to contribute anything in the way of work to it.

Most of us started from scratch and built a business ourselves, and simply surviving was our crowning achievement. By the time the tax man gets his due after we've been planted, our heirs, who generally thought we were nuts while we were alive for staying in something there's so little return in , will be looking to unload "the problem" for whatever they can get for it.

A lot of us, including me, and I've been in business for going on 43 years now, have regularly worked for LESS than what we pay our employees. And if you count the hours we often have to put in, many times for less than minimum wage.

I wash the toilet in my business myself. You want to know why? Because others that use it there are either too damned lazy to clean it after messing it up, or they figure that kind of work is beneath them. "It's not my job..." So then, just whose is it?

I let it go, once, to see if I could shame anyone into at least cleaning up after themselves. I wanted to see just how dirty it would get before anyone else would pick up the toilet brush and some cleanser, both readily available, and scrub it out. No one did.

After two weeks of still accumulating filth and no employee action whatsoever, I'd had enough. I cleaned it myself, wondering how anyone could even bring themselves to sit on something as dirty as that.

Hell, I can't even get any one of them to change the roll of toilet paper when it runs out. They'll let the new roll sit on top of the dispenser, seemingly unable to remove the empty roll, put the cardboard core in the garbage, and then put the new roll in. Maybe that takes too much effort, or is it beyond the level of average intelligence?

Couldn't be that latter. One guy boasts that he can time his dumps to always use the company's can. And has calculated how much he saves in buying asswipe for home by doing just that. Makes me wonder if he ever cleans the crapper at home, but then again maybe he doesn't have to if he always uses mine.

I've always been able to pay well above minimum wage in my business, comparable generally to what unionised employees at larger firms get. I can't match those larger firms in benefits, though ~ there's just not enough dough in what we do to do that.

There's no doubt some businesses that do pay minimum wage are ones who could well afford to pay more, and still generate an adequate return for their owners. Most small businesses though, I would say the vast majority, pay the best they can. And if they're paying minimum wage now, they're usually going to have a hard time paying more and keeping the door open.

The "answer", if there is one, isn't going to be found in raising the minimum wage, or any other wage. Prices will ALWAYS rise faster, since every increase in wages has to be costed into them if the business is to stay in business. On average, most businesses, small, medium, and large, are operating on borrowed money. To repay their borrowings they have to generate a profit. If they can't do that, if their rate of profit is declining, their continued ability to access needed credit dries up. And they're soon out of business as a result. The key is going to be found, not in the number of dollars the employee receives, but rather in how much each one of those dollars will BUY.

Duffer,I am gathering by your choice of wording,that you have managed a company for twenty years, or do you own the company.If you only manage the company,and are currently at work,why are you spending the companies time posting on 250,as I do not believe this is an efficient use of working hours.Maybe,if you are not the owner and only manage the company,the boss should look at your wage and reduce it as they are not getting there monies worth out of you.To all these people that say go get an education,well I have and so have a lot of others,sometimes thereis not enough employment in a persons chosen field of expertise or it may not be feasible for a person to leave a certain city or region to seek out that particular job,as a sick family member may need them or that person may need a certain level of medical attention themselves.Should that stop people from trying to seek a better wage for themselves and others,I think not.

You're just looking at one side of the equation, jakeadoo. Wages and salaries are costed into prices. And if wages and salaries rise, prices will too ~ only more. Because there are additional costs associated with raising wages that the employee does not receive in his increase in spendable income, yet his employer still has to pay out and recover in price.

If Jim Sinclair, the BC Fed, all its individual member Unions, and everyone else who wants to see working people advance in being able to access a better standard of living than they presently are able to afford ~ a standard that is more than physically possible for all to achieve ~ they first need to recognise that the key is to increase the PURCHASING POWER of EACH dollar received.

Not, as they've been trying to do with little, no, or a negative effect on those they say they're trying to help by simply pushing for 'more' dollars.

And every time witnessing the 'more' they end up getting actually BUYING 'less' than each dollar did before.

This might be a wonderful way for Jim and his cohorts in the Union movement to perpetuate the idea that they're of more use to workers than they actually are, but it really doesn't do anything towards achieving the kind of living standards for everyone that we should be progressing towards.

Jake, perhaps you should try to be in someone else's shoes once just to see how many hours a boss or manager has to put in. I am not complaining about it because I get paid well, but the reason for that is because I showed some initiative a few years ago. I did not want to live off the backs of everyone else and expect handouts from all levels of government or have a union make sure I kept my job.

I am not saying that I never will, but up until now after over 40 years of working, I have never gotten $1.00 of E.I. money or welfare. That is something a lot of people can't admit. I also have never been in a union and wouldn't want to.