British Columbia Now Has Canada's Lowest Minimum Wage

Look a little deeper into the economic stats and you will learn much more about this issue.  Firstly minimum wage jobs are the domain of the teenager and the second income earner not the primary household income earner.  Like welfare, most people who earn minimum wages do so for a short period of time until they build skills that command higher wages.  Only 2.7 % of working British Columbians work for the minimum wage.

Look at the whole economic picture and not the biased version from the "progressive" Policy Note's web site.  Here are the BC Government's own audited stats:

• Since December 2001, British Columbia's economy has added 353,100 jobs.
• Average monthly employment in 2008 was recorded at 2,314,000 jobs, up by 48,000 or 2.1 per cent compared with 2007 - representing the third highest job growth percentage increase in Canada, and exceeding the national growth rate of 1.5 per cent.
• B.C.'s unemployment is the fourth lowest in Canada at *7.8 per cent.
• B.C.'s unemployment rate has been at or below the national average since 2004.
• In 2008, employment growth in B.C. of 2.1 per cent was third highest among the provinces – and exceeded the national growth rate of 1.5 per cent.
• Youth unemployment in B.C. in 2000 was 13.7 per cent. For 2008, the youth unemployment rate averaged *8.4 per cent.
• In 2001, six per cent of British Columbians were earning minimum wage or less. In 2008, that number dropped to 2.7 per cent.
• British Columbians' average hourly wage is $21.81– third highest in Canada and more than 2.5 times the minimum wage.
• The average hourly wage for youth is $13.17 – third highest in Canada and more than 1.5 times the minimum wage.
• Real disposable per capita income has gone up every single year since 2001.
• Real disposable income per capita in B.C. grew by 23.7 per cent from 2000 to 2008. From 1990 to 1999, disposable income per capita increased by 13.5 per cent.
• In each and every year since 2004, B.C. has finished ahead of the Canadian average in real disposal income growth.
• British Columbians now pay the lowest provincial income tax in Canada for anyone earning $116,000 or less.
• An additional 250,000 low-income British Columbians now pay no taxes at all.
• A family of four earning a combined $70,000 is saving an additional $2,000 a year in income taxes compared with 2001. Those savings add directly to personal disposable income.

BC's minimum wage is a non-issue for 97.3% of workers.  Our income earning potential in BC is the envy of most of Canada.