Living Wage - A Condemnation of "Minimum Wage"

Alberta's not an easy place to live right now. Yes, there's tons of jobs, but only if you have specific skills will you garner a wage that's of any substance. Those who are in semi-skilled or unskilled positions struggle to find work that will pay them anything close to a wage that will allow them to make ends meet - forcing many to work multiple jobs just to pay the rent.

In spite of what the inflation numbers suggest, the cost of living has skyrocketed in the last few years. Modest accommodations in the city run in excess of $1,000 per month; utility costs have skyrocketed in the wake of Ralph's experiments with deregulation as has the cost of staples like food.

The provincial government has been stingy to say the least in its adjustments to the "minimum wage" in this province - it currently sits at $8.40/hr - a gross earnings of $1344/month, before taxes.

When the City of Calgary adopted a Living Wage policy yesterday, I had to think about it for a bit before I came to any kind of opinion on the subject.

Superficially, it is a noble idea, and one that I applaud from a human perspective. A full time job should pay someone enough to make ends meet - even in a boom town gone mad.

But, this comes at a price, and one we should not take too blithely. Increasing city wages will inevitably place pressure on city revenues, and thus, will no doubt have an impact on tax rates. As a homeowner, that's an additional expense that I incur every month.

For small business owners, it's a bit more of a problem. Often their cash flows simply cannot support paying a "living wage" rate. A small business often lives or dies on its monthly revenues, and bumping wages from $8.40 to over $13.00 an hour could be quite damaging to the viability of some. Yet, driving around Calgary the last few years, even the so-called "McJobs" have been offering starting wages between $10 and $12 an hour - a reflection of a job market which is starving for workers.

Of course, a blanket increase in the minimum wage could trigger still more inflation, as the costs of goods and services would go up as well (it's not like there's such a thing as a 'free lunch' here).

However, the reality is that in Alberta's urban areas, "minimum wage" is a joke. Unless you are retired, or work for reasons other than economic survival, a minimum wage job simply isn't cutting it.

The Alberta government's approach to its wage structures has been monolithic, treating economic hotspots like Calgary and Fort McMurray the same as the rest of the province. The net result has been that for those on the economic margins, life in those areas has become increasingly difficult with no relief in sight. In this regard, I applaud Calgary's city council for taking an interest in the well-being of the City's employees.

Unfortunately, I do not think that the current Alberta government will be willing to consider any such thing, and will continue to allow a set of laws rooted in a very different era to determine how Alberta's low-wage workers are compensated.