Starting this fall, Alberta will no longer have the lowest minimum wage rate in the country. That’s because Albertans who make minimum wage will get a 35-cent raise — bringing their total hourly rate up to $9.75.
The new rate will go into effect on September 1st. In fact, minimum wage workers in Alberta can now expect pay raises every September, thanks to the government’s new minimum wage formula that links their hourly rate to annual increases in the Average Weekly Earnings Index and the Consumer Price Index.
“Even though cost of living has not increased significantly in the province … I think the adjustment for those living on minimum wage is important,” Human Service Minister Dave Hancock said.
Some Albertans won’t get a raise, though. Workers who serve liquor and receive tips will see their hourly rate stay at $9.05.
Still, many see the raise as a step in the right direction.
Since Alberta had long been in Canada’s cellar rate-wise, minimum wage workers were desperate for a raise. They got some hope in 2011, when Premier Alison Redford promised to reopen debate over how to set the rate. Now, the province has the second-lowest minimum wage rate in the country.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be the highest, but it’s not right that we’re the lowest, so we’ll be looking at that,” Redford said in November, shortly after she was elected leader of the Progressive Conservatives. “It is important to make sure that everyone who is working is actually earning an income that allows them to not be considered part of the working poor.”
However, some Albertans say the new rate still isn’t good enough.
“She absolutely needs to review the current minimum wage policy, particularly in light of the very high cost of living in Alberta,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, a member of the left-wing advocacy group Public Interest Alberta. “Working parents with children are living in poverty because they are not earning a living wage, and we know that upwards of 50% of all children living in poverty have one parent working full time, full year.”
While Redford says the minimum wage formula won’t be reviewed any further, she says that minimum wage will be a topic of discussion when Alberta’s leaders talk about new ways to reduce poverty.
“That’s part of the discussion about the tools you have to achieve social equity, and is minimum wage one of them, and that obviously will come up,” Hancock said. “But we’re not doing each of them as a one-off.”
Check back here for Compliance Poster Company’s updated Alberta All-On-One labor law posters this fall.