Alberta signals it won't follow in BC's footsteps of raising minimum wage
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney signalled on Tuesday that the province has no plans to raise its minimum wage anytime soon.
Kenney was asked at a press conference in Edmonton on Tuesday whether Alberta would follow in the footsteps of British Columbia, where the minimum wage will increase this June.
Alberta’s minimum wage currently sits at $15 per hour, with the last raise occurring in October 2018.
“Albert did increase its minimum wage in 2016 by 50% and did so in the middle of a recession. This resulted in job losses, particularly in the service sector,” said Kenney.
Kenney said the tens of thousands of jobs were lost because employers couldn’t afford a 50% increase in wage costs.
Now that Alberta has done away with the vast majority of its COVID-19 public health measures, Kenney says it’s not the time for an uptick in minimum wage.
“Mant of those minimum wage jobs are in that service sector where you have struggling small businesses that have been absolutely devastated through COVID, many of them are financially flat on their back, they got deeply encumbered in debt just to keep the doors open,” said Kenney.
“Only now are things fully opening for them to get their business back to normal levels, so I think adding yet another major increase on minimum wage would probably be the end of many of these small hospitality businesses that barely survived the pandemic.”
“We have to be mindful about the ability of them to bear ever-higher costs, as they are already having to do with food inflation and fuel inflation forcing up prices, and that drives away customers.”
The federal minimum wage is also set to increase by 55 cents to $15.55 per hour on April 1.