Who has not said this before in their working lives, "Appreciate the raise but it is not enough."
That is the reaction of those who advocate for a raise to B.C.'s minimum wage beyond the $17.40 to $17.85 increase announced by the provincial government this month.
One of those advocates is Anastasia French, managing director for Living Wage BC supported by the Vancity Community Foundation, who says the minimum wage is falling far short of the $25.77 an hour living wage for Kelowna or $26.77 in Victoria, $27.05 in Vancouver, $20.81 in Grand Forks, $28.09 Whistler.
French cites the cost of affordable housing, most notably jacked-up rental rates, along with food in grocery stores for contributing to the widening gap between the two wage criteria.
"Five years ago that gap was closing between minimum wage and the living wage, and then COVID hit and that gap has increased since then," French said, noting rent and food tend to be the two largest expenses for households.
French offers several statistics, obtained from Statistic Canada's Labour Force Survey, that reflect the economics of working in Kelowna: 33,500 Kelowna workers earn less than the living wage of $24.60 an hour (35 per cent of the workforce); 18,800 workers earning less than $25 per hour are women (55 per cent); and 23,000 of workers (67 per cent) are over 25 while 11,300 (33 per cent) are under 25.
The living wage is considered the rate full-time workers need to earn to support a family, including covering the necessities, escaping severe financial stress and being able to participate in social, civic and cultural activities in their communities.
The living wage does not account for credit card, loan or other debt payments, savings for retirement, downpayment on a home or the extra costs of caring for a disabled, seriously ill or elderly family member.
How the provincial government can close the gap between the minimum and living wage, French suggests, includes building more affordable housing to reduce the income strain on paying excessive rent, expanding the $10-a-day childcare access and investing in public transit to reduce the dependence on owning a car to hold a job.
Not everyone agrees with the minimum wage hike argument, as the Fraser Institute, for example, thinks the focus should instead be on the government cutting taxes.
Tegan Hill, Alberta policy director for the Fraser Institute, writes that empirical research shows that a higher minimum wage actually may hurt workers as it can have a negative effect on employment.
"Why? Because as the cost of labour increases, employers tend to hire fewer workers (or even fire workers) and/or reduce the number of work hours for remaining workers...In fact, according to the evidence, both employment and work hours often decrease when minimum wages rise," she stated in a recent Fraser Institute website editorial.
Hill cites a 2021 study that claimed 92.1 per cent of minimum wage earners in B.C. lived in households above the poverty line, mainly because most minimum wage workers are not the primary breadwinners in the home, but are rather secondary or tertiary earners, such as a spouse working part-time or school-aged children still living at home who work part-time.
But for French, she says the growing disparity between the high-income and low-income levels continues to increase without viable solutions being addressed in response.
"The rich are getting richer, as having money breeds more money," she said.
"Having an equitable distribution of wealth means you have to tax the rich to provide public services like affordable housing and transit to help people rise above living in poverty."
Coupled with affordable housing to build housing volume and decrease rent, she says food prices need to be addressed, pointing a finger at the monopoly control exercised by grocery store chains across Canada.
While former prime minister Justin Trudeau did draw public attention to the grocery store monopoly and the relationship to rising food prices, he did not pursue any food pricing regulatory measures.
"Trudeau said a lot of things but there was not a lot of follow-up," she acknowledged.
