Minimum wage debate needs nuance

Minimum wage is a hot-button topic across the country. College students protest their governments to provide a livable wage. Provinces such as Ontario and Alberta are planning to raise their minimum wages to $15 per hour in the near futre. In October, Saskatchewan will raise its minimum wage from $10.72 to $10.96, a 2% increase. 

Hendrik Brakel thinks a lot of nuance is being lost in the minimum wage debate.

“I think people take extreme views on [minimum wage],” he says.

Brakel, the Senior Director for Economic, Financial, and Tax Policy with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, recently published a report highlighting the risks for businesses in sustaining a higher minimum wage.

“We look at it purely from an economic perspective,” he says.

Brakel’s report, which was distributed through the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce, points out that many businesses which employ minimum wage workers cannot absorb the costs of higher pay without severly cutting into their profit margins. They’re left with two options.

They can raise prices, which can scare

customers away, or they reduce their workers’ payable hours.

“Casual workers get less hours because it’s easy to cut them,” Brakel says.

Brakel points to Seattle as a prime example. Seattle saw wages go up by 3%, but hours went down by 9%, leaving employees worse off.

Yorkton businesses could feel the pinch of higher minimum wages in October. Aaron Kienle, a city councillor and local business owner, pays his employees $11 hour, so he won’t be affected much by the raise.

“I understand a 2% increase could impact businesses,” he says.

Kienle says that while the raise is coming soon, he hasn’t heard many busines owners discuss it.

“It’s not really on the radar,” he says.

While the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce has not discussed the report, Juanita Polegi, their Executive Director, says the Chamber is always concerned with any increases to fees for businesses.

Brakel doesn’t want to discourage a healthy minimum wage. He says it should be an open, transparent dialogue between workers and employees.

“It’s not a political football,” he says.