![]() ![]() “The minimum wage still equals only 31 percent of the average wage for private sector, non-supervisory workers… the lowest share since at least the end of World War II” (Bernstein & Shapiro, 2006). The purchasing power for the minimum wage worker has decreased by 20 percent since September 1997. Prior to the Bush administration years, Congress used to regularly raise the minimum wage so as to allow workers’ income to keep pace with inflation.Ĭongressional inaction during these years has resulted in the minimum wage value being immensely eroded. In 1968, a full-time employee who earned the Federal minimum wage made what would be “the equivalent of $15,431 today, 44 percent more than today’s full-time minimum wage worker” (Lee, 1999, p. In addition, it will cause a ‘ripple effect’ in that wages will also increase for those that make just above the minimum. It will also help those that need it the most such as single mothers and minorities. Raising the minimum wage allows those who make minimum salaries to keep up with inflation. Backed by the ‘New Dealers,’ these issues were addressed on the federal level. Labor unions lobbied for minimum wages and other worker benefits including employers’ liability laws, social reformers worked for maximum hours for women workers, factory inspections, child-labor laws, and anti-sweatshop laws” (Baker, 2003). The economic conditions of the time demanded that the solutions foster relations between the oppressive capitalist class and the working class. The welfare system, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance established by the 1930’s New Deal to provide assistance to the poor, in part, still exist today. The rationale behind a minimum wage, intended for the least skilled and educated persons in the workforce, is to raise their earnings in order to offset the forces that drive the market down which would otherwise reduce their buying power. The minimum wage law was established by the federal then some state government to assure that this ideal was a realization. It also reduces criminal activity and slows the adverse effects of outsourcing which ships American jobs overseas. This paper demonstrates that raising the minimum wage is practical for all concerned, workers, employers and the economy as a whole. Opponents to further increasing the minimum wage argue that prices to consumers will increase, workers will lose their jobs and the inflation rate will rise. ![]() The cost of living in Vancouver is increasing fast.For workers in Mississippi, for example, $7.50 may be enough to subsist but the cost of living is substantially lower in Vicksburg than in Chicago, for example. The minimum wage has increased every year going back to 2018. It also pointed out that BC has the highest minimum wage of any province (not territory) in Canada. New cost of living credit coming to 85% of British ColumbiansĮarlier in 2023, BC’s Ministry of Labour told Daily Hive that it’s looking at options for 2023 and future years, “including whether a formula should be laid out in legislation.”.These spots in Canada are raising the minimum wage this year.Canada is raising the federal minimum wage next month.The consumer price index rose by 6.9% in BC in 2022, so a wage increase tied to inflation could be significant. We are reviewing our options and the decision will be coming shortly.” ![]() “After surpassing the goal of $15/hour in 2021, we committed to tie future increases to the rate of inflation. “When our government took office, BC had one of the lowest minimum wages in the country, and it had been frozen for years by successive Liberal governments,” said BC Minister of Labour Harry Bains in a statement to Daily Hive. However, last year, the June hike wasn’t announced until March. ![]() Things won’t be getting cheaper in BC this year, and with the cost of living expected to rise in various ways, the province has yet to reveal details about a minimum wage hike in 2023.īC increased the minimum wage on June 1, 2022, but there is no scheduled minimum wage increase for 2023. ![]()
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