One of the Chief Villainies of the NDP is that they intend on raising the Minimum Wage. For restaurants, this is disaster, they rely on low wages (and tips) to stay in business.
I get this. I work in restaurants. Raise the minimum wage, but if you rely on tips, well, to the extent that your average server relies on minimum wage, maybe their minimum wage can be less. Their income is (substantially) subsidized by tips.
But then I read an article in the Calgary Herald (I know, but I still live here!). It got me thinking. My first "job" was a paperboy, minimum wage didn't apply. My next job was self employed shoveling sidewalks of snow...self employed, no minimum wage. By the time I got to minimum wage I was 15 living in Edmonton.
And, yeah, minimum wage, it's a big incentive to do better. My minimum wage was in the vicinity of $3.00 per hour. So there. And my first car cost me $300 and last me all of 2 days (Datsun, Tercel, blew head gasket on a country road...). And so this, the argument that the minimum wage inspires us to do better, well, yes, I agree.
But upon further reflection, no. Fuck that. I'm not 15. And most of the people I see working in the vicinity of minimum wage aren't either.
FROM THE ALBERTA GOVERNMENT WEBSITE:
Demographics
Here is what we know about Albertans who make minimum wage (2015/16 statistics):
- Approximately 59,000 Albertans earn minimum wage.
- The majority of minimum-wage earners (61 per cent) are female.
- Approximately 43 per cent of minimum-wage earners work full time, and nearly 77 per cent have permanent jobs.
Here is what we know about low-income earners in Alberta:
- Approximately 296,200 Albertans currently earn less than $15 per hour.
- Over 50 per cent of those earning $15 per hour or less are the heads of households or their spouses.
- Nearly 37,000 of those earning $15 per hour or less are single earners with children.
I suspect, as with a lot of government data, this obfuscates the true numbers, commissioned workers, flyer delivery, taxi drivers, all might be categorized differently. You eat fast food, in restaurants, shop retail, Wal-Mart, Safeway, Groceries? You know minimum wage.
Minimum wage, the incentive to do better, that's fine. Minimum wage, you're 14. 15. 16 years old, just learning how to work, that's fine.
But let's be real. Minimum wage is being exploited in Alberta to allow major corporations and fast-food outlets to import foreign citizens to work for a wage that we'd only allow our children to earn if they lived at home! If you've been to a fast food restaurant or a Tim Horton's you'll probably understand that the people serving you are not Canadian, or landed immigrants, they're TFW (Temporary Foreign Workers),
...that the fact that the loophole exists that we can import foreign workers should tell us the system is broken! Companies earn more while paying less!. And foreign workers, not knowing their rights, often are far more amenable to bad employment practices (no overtime, sick leave, etc). Foreign workers, by nature of their visa's and sponsorship, have no recourse to "aspiring to do better" - to aspire means to leave the country and reapply for a different job, a move that costs the already low wage earners thousands of dollars, or years of savings, this option is not available to them...
Yeah. Minimum wage. Too bad, everyone deserves a livable minimum wage. Thank you Rachel Notley for having some integrity. And let's fuck the TFW Program (Temporary Foreign Worker Program) until companies ante up and pay people what they're worth. We probably don't need them after all, and if to need them is to "exploit" them, well, let's just keep our hands clean...we're not the US after all (although we're fast becoming...)