Do you think Alberta’s minimum wage should be increased?

33 Comments

  • rush limbaugh - 8 years ago

    Scrap the minimum wage. Let the market get to it's natural state without any intervention.

  • Matthew Clarke - 9 years ago

    You can pay a higher minimum wage but stagger the amount certain age groups actually take home on a cheque, then dump the remainder in a government opened mutual fund or tax free savings. that way the government can invest that money while the kids are under 18 and help the economy and when the kids do turn 18 they can take their money out and at least they have some savings for college or a down payment on a house. Its a good way to raise the minimum wage, for teenagers who are working to not only learn about investment but also to save some money and for the government to have extra investment capitol, everybody should gain something.

  • Miriam Clarke - 9 years ago

    http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/labour-relations/minimum-pay-rates-award-free-employees-employers

    I think we should increase wage by age. Western Australia does it and it works well for them.
    This is how they do it there:
    age 21+ 17.52an hour
    20 15.77
    19 14.02
    18 12.27
    17 10.52
    16 8.76

  • RLT - 9 years ago

    Well, the NDP will probably have imploded by 2018.

  • Moe - 9 years ago

    Most of my employees are high school students that are living at home and supported by their parents. They are just working for a little experience and spending money. Do they really need a living wage?

    If minimum wage goes up to $15/hr, I will have to charge my customers (mostly low and middle income families) more so I can pay high school students a living wage. How will this help the people that really need it?

  • Thora - 9 years ago

    I'm of mixed feelings. If the rent and housing costs stay the same then yes! Do it! Raise it to $15. However it is not necessary if rent is lowered and a landlord/tenant act is brought in. Most Ontario minimum wage earners do just fine making $11 an hour with living costs because they are realistic! I came here to alberta to get away from an abusive relationship and the only way I can afford to live out here is to get a job in the oil patch or do hard manual labour which I can't do due to a knee that requires surgery and a bad back due to a cat accident! The rent here is atrocious and as a result I am stuck living with my grandma rent free and I still with paying my part of insurance and my phone Bills and everything else still have next to nothing left over for savings!

  • kjva - 9 years ago

    Well, I pay a nanny right now so the kids don't have to be alone all day. I am a single parent who earns in the upper middle class. I work 60hrs a week to provide, and I think most people who we consider well off work a ton but don't get credit. It is always about taxing me more because you don't wanna work hard. I can't pay my nanny $15 an hour, simple as that. I will probably have to dial back hours, and expect my kids (8 and 5) to be more independent.

    I imagine plenty of companies will just layoff extra workers to avoid raising costs. Walmart can keep its prices low even with staff increase, but Joe Blow can't afford to keep prices low and pay staff. The people who think he can have never owned a business. We will see small companies either dial back staff, or shutdown.

    I don't know how many of you actually read the NDP platform. It was very barebones, and nonsensical. The plan to diversify the economy was to charge Oil companies more. Not to mention, 60% of people didn't vote NDP.

  • Sran - 9 years ago

    Well said Wade. That's the truth, let the facts be written and heard. Come on people lets get some dialog going here.

  • wade - 9 years ago

    raising min wage will only cause the prices on everything to go up which means for seniors and the disabled who can barely make ends meet a choice of starving or living on the streets.

  • jj - 9 years ago

    Wow! Wonder if that 38% wage increase will trickle for the rest....unskilled labour @$15 Skilled labour with student loans...man I'd make more bartending @ min wage +tips at $100 a night. Doesn't make sense....

  • Sean - 9 years ago

    Raising the minimum wage to anywhere near to 15$ an hour is ridiculous. Albertans what do you think will happen? The cost for general everyday services will spike sky hi and everyday items that we are used to having and buying will also skyrocket in price. Use your head. Small business and large business will all do the same thing and it will be justifiable. Once again, prices will skyrocket in the end it was all for nothing. As a matter a fact it just caused Alberta more headaches than it needed. Poor leadership off to a spectacular start.

  • D - 9 years ago

    I couldn't disagree more with those disputing wage increase .... what you do for a living is irrelevant in todays HIGH COST OF LIVING.... I feel everybody should be able to make a comfortable wage to be able to get a head $10.20 an hr. doesn't cut it !!!!!!!!! Pretty hard to keep the motivation going day to day when living paycheck to paycheck, especially for anyone just starting out or low income families !!!!! As for options like going back to school not everyone can afford it. And , working 2 or 3 jobs ???? All work and no play isn't ideal either... life's to short. We all deserve to stop & smell the flowers .

  • D - 9 years ago

    I couldn't disagree more with those disputing wage increase .... what you do for a living is irrelevant in todays HIGH COST OF LIVING.... I feel everybody should be able to make a comfortable wage to be able to get a head $10.20 an hr. doesn't cut it !!!!!!!!! Pretty hard to keep the motivation going day to day when living paycheck to paycheck, especially for anyone just starting out or low income families !!!!! As for options like going back to school not everyone can afford it. And , working 2 or 3 jobs ???? All work and no play isn't ideal either... life's to short. We all deserve to stop & smell the flowers .

  • Clayton Dyck - 9 years ago

    Forget about the wages and concentrate on complete health care. Ears eyes and the mouth are parts of the human anatomy why are they excluded from health coverage, this would be more advantageous to every Albertan than a hike in minimum wage.

  • M - 9 years ago

    I'm sorry, but the sandwich makers and coffee pourers of the world do not deserve to make $15/hr. And before some of you get your panties in a knot, I have worked in the fast food industry; in fact, I did for serveral years, and when I did, I made less $8/hr. You should get paid for the work you do. And trust me pouring coffee does not justify $15/hr. If you find yourself not making enough to afford housing and food, get a different job, work more hours, get another job, or go back to school, move to a more affordable city. You should not expect to earn livable wage just because you work. Plenty of people work more than one job, more than 40 hours a week, are going back to school while working. And for those of you that are doing it and complain about, wahn wahn. I'm sorry, no one deserves a handout, especially when it comes at cost for small buisiness and the raising of prices on items for the rest of us.

  • M - 9 years ago

    I'm sorry, but the sandwich makers and coffee pourers of the world do not deserve to make $15/hr. And before some of you get your panties in a knot, I have worked in the fast food industry; in fact, I did for serveral years, and when I did, I made less $8/hr. You should get paid for the work you do. And trust me pouring coffee does not justify $15/hr. If you find yourself not making enough to afford housing and food, get a different job, work more hours, get another job, or go back to school, move to a more affordable city. You should not expect to earn livable wage just because you work. Plenty of people work more than one job, more than 40 hours a week, are going back to school while working. And for those of you that are doing it and complain about, wahn wahn. I'm sorry, no one deserves a handout, especially when it comes at cost for small buisiness and the raising of prices on items for the rest of us.

  • Bob - 9 years ago

    A buddy and I own a small landscaping business that we started back in university. We only operate during summer time. We pay our summer students 15 an hour. We are both working professional jobs and do this as a hoobby and helping out college kids. We make no money on this, so if we are forced to increase wages we’ll just shut down. We lose nothing cause we were making nothing. It just end up hurting the students we used to employ.

    Why will a kid do manual labor for 15 when he can go bag groceries or flip burgers ? Only reason our company works is because we don't make profits or loose money. He'll were both P.eng. Shutting down just gives us more time to spend with our families. Sorry kids we tried.

  • David - 9 years ago

    $15 minimum wage, phased in over 3 years, is not the end of the world. However, the cost of living will increase with a higher minimum wage. Housing costs all over Alberta (not just Calgary and Edmonton) are bloody insane. Affordable housing needs to be addressed before min wage can be increased.

  • Doug Ross - 9 years ago

    To Phil H. - just because some cities in the U.S think it's a good idea means nothing. Their economy is a house of cards stacked on a wobbly table. The States owes more debt that it can ever hope to repay & goes further down the drain every day. So just because some Democratic mayors with no understanding of how an economy works gets behind an idea doesn't make it good policy. To Scary- thanks for taking the time from playing X Box in your parents basement to comment. It's idiots like you who will suffer the most when the idea that all the worlds troubles can be solved by sticking it to the man proves false. If you want proof read history.

  • Scary - 9 years ago

    Aww, it's cute how afraid you all are.

  • N - 9 years ago

    1 - It was in the platform. A large plurality of Albertans voted for that platform...did they somehow think it wouldn't happen.
    2 - Let's be clear on what we're talking about: $15/hour x 40 hours/week x 52 weeks/year = $31,200. If your business can't afford to pay a touch over $30k per FTE, your business is in trouble already.

    No argument I've seen online has been able to provide empirical data about the central question: how elastic is demand for low-wage labour? How many people are profitable to employ at $10.20 but not at $15? If the answer is inelastic, meaning very few people will lose their jobs, and many more will earn higher wages (at the expense of business owners and/or consumers) then this is a good policy for decreasing inequality. But I can't find any real-world research that says what the observed elasticity is, so it's impossible to judge such a policy until it's implemented.

    Posturing on the internet seems to be limited to the idea that if someone loses their job because of a higher minimum wage it's a bad policy. But really, it's a question of how much earned income is lost to reduced work hours vs how much earned income is gained through higher earnings. If there's a net positive, then the policy is good.

  • Phil Harmonic - 9 years ago

    None of the doom and gloom people know what they are talking about. More and more cities in the US are raising their minimum wages, and the sky has not fallen.

  • Doug - 9 years ago

    it is worth noting that even the train wreck known as the Wynne government in Ontario has not proposed something as stupid as this. The fact is there are not many people making the minimum wage who rely solely on it to feed, clothe & house themselves and/or their dependents. Generally they are spouses or partners of someone making a significant amount of money already or students looking to earn spending money. Raising the minimum wage to 15.00 is a fifty percent increase over the current rate & by the time you factor in EI premiums, CPP & WCB it is costing the employer 20.00/ hr. At that price fast food chains, grocery stores & warehouses will automate their businesses & a lot of minimum wage jobs will disappear forever. They will suffer a one time cost to pay for a machine to replace a person & once it's bolted to the floor its never coming out. Where such technology doesn't currently exist it soon will because in the real world necessity breeds invention. All cash registers will be automated, all gas stations will be self serve, you will bag your own groceries at every supermarket & these lower paying jobs that allowed generations of people to enter the workforce will be NDP collateral damage. In situations where these jobs are retained the resulting increase to the consumer will have the same crippling effect. Maybe math is hard after all Miss Notchley.

  • Joe - 9 years ago

    Why stop at $15? Why not keep going? $20! $30! How about $100 per hour for everyone? Since apparently these people think wages exist in a vacuum, sealed away from the rest of the economy, let's just legislate everyone to be rich!

  • N - 9 years ago

    Well Albertans how much more are you willing to pay for everything you buy? Don't kid yourself a 38.9% increase in minimum wage and the spill over effect that will result from such a massive increase will force employers to increase prices. Can you say "Wage Push Inflation". Are you infavour of giving up 8 - 10 % of your paycheque for the cause.

  • LH - 9 years ago

    You could raise it to $20 an hour. The only possible result will be forcing the cost of good/services sold to increase so that profits are unaffected. The lunacy that IS the NDP is about to begin so buckle up my fellow Albertans.

  • Cate - 9 years ago

    Minimum Wage!!? Right now in Calgary an adult on minimum wage could maybe hope to make about $1,400 per month. In this city? What kind of housing does that get you now? And if you get housing you likely cannot afford a car, but can you pay the horrendous monthly transit fees? And then; your 'phone bills, power, heat etc. I do believe in some wage disparity but come on folks, a living wage for the people doing those jobs that no one really wants to do, serving you coffee at 06:00 on your way to the office is desperately needed. I work in an industry that pays well, and that I went to University for, but I cannot in all conscience support keeping the folks below me on the wage ladder struggling at the bottom.

  • Eric - 9 years ago

    Raising the minimum wage - in this case by almost 50% - merely apportions the same wage pot amongst fewer workers. Quite simply, jobs will disappear and businesses that are labour-intensive will either close up shop or move to another jurisdiction. In Europe, where minimum wage is rather high, youth unemployment exceeds 50%, their jobs having been replaced in many cases, by automated kiosks. It is rooted in left-wing ideology. Stupid hardly describes it.

  • Chiel - 9 years ago

    A wage hike is okay, but that should mean a decrease in tips. If both wage and tips are high, what's the incentive of post secondary for young people otherwise?

  • Byron - 9 years ago

    As a small business owner, I would need to recoup my losses from a higher minimum wage. The easiest way to do this would be by increasing prices. As a result, I may loose some clients and the clients I still have will have less money in their pockets. A minimum wage increase to $11 would be fine but $15 is ridiculous.

  • Chuck - 9 years ago

    Anybody who works deserves a living wage

  • Syd - 9 years ago

    The NDP never learns. Here's what will happen: Small business owners who can't afford it will drop employees to part-time and will have to work longer hours themselves. The employees will be no further ahead and will lose their benefits besides.

  • B - 9 years ago

    What about all the people who chose to go to school to better themselves and make a good wage? I think that this will deter people from that. I mean why get into debt to go to school only to make $10 over minimum wage? I in no way want to take away from the people doing minimum wage jobs, because we need all types of workers to make this world go around. But where I do have a problem is when a person who makes your coffee earns the same as a person providing your healthcare.

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