By Melanie Jacob
Journal Editor
[email protected]
Minimum wage earners can say thanks for the provincial government's 20-cent raise, but labour groups are saying it's still not good enough.
"Our research in Saskatchewan has been advocating for a living wage," said Simon Enoch, director of the Saskatchewan office for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). "Right now, that would mean $16.46 for a family of four with two children in daycare."
A living wage differs from a minimum wage because it enables the worker to afford the basic essentials. Minimum wage, on the other hand, wouldn't meet those requirements and might force the worker to supplement their income with government programs.
Regardless, the recent wage increase was indexed against the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the average hourly wage in Saskatchewan. From this point on, the provincial government will be using an annual indexation formula to ensure that minimum wage keeps pace with inflation.
"Each year, the Government will review the changes in the Consumer Price Index and the Average Hourly Wage for the previous year, as reported by Statistics Canada," said Mike Carr, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety in an email response. "The percentage change in these indicators will be used to determine the potential increase in the minimum wage."
Despite this automatic formula, cabinet will still retain the ability to approve any other increases if necessary. Furthermore, according to Enoch, such a formula is an improvement than the previous model since it would remove some of the opposition from small business lobbies and "take it out of the hands of politicians."
"Historically, you've had the stagnation of wages since the 1970s. It used to be coupled with productivity, but not anymore it seems," said Enoch. "Lately, all Canadians have seen their wages flat line."
According to Enoch, if people aren't paid what they need to live, they're forced to resort to tax-funded programs. Basically, this means that taxpayers would be subsidizing those low wages for the businesses that employ them.
"Almost half of low wage jobs are full time and almost half of those are over the age of 25," he said. "I'm talking about adults with families and people working for these wages for a long period of time."
Despite this, the government can't just bump up the minimum wage too significant to offset these problems. It would cause a wage shock for employers that could result in more job loss. They would have to go against lobbyists, who advocate on behalf of businesses that can't or don't want to deal with further wage increases. Even so, it's political will that dictates wage rates, said Enoch. The government just won't raise it higher because the province (and the country) "has a very powerful small business lobby that doesn't want to pay that much (of a living wage)."
Instead, the government balances out low wages with benefits elsewhere.
"The increase of minimum wage, combined with tax cuts announced previously, helps improve the standard of living for low-income earnings in Saskatchewan," said Carr in the email. "Individual taxpayers now pay no Saskatchewan income tax on their first $18,650 of income. A family of four pays no Saskatchewan income tax on their first $48,320 of income."
Despite this, Enoch says 20 cents just isn't going to cut it. The wage rate would have to increase by at least a dollar to give workers a chance to catch up with where the cost of living has one in the last decade.
