Bowing to constant pressure from the business community
Ottawa (17 Jan. 2007) - How long will it take before Parliament finally does something about Canada's appalling minimum wage rates?
Now that the United States House of Representatives has voted to raise the U.S. federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour ($8.50 Cdn) by 2008, it's high time Canadian MPs did something to protect the working people they represent.
Yet what are the chances with a big business prime minister like Stephen Harper (and his right-wing caucus) holding power, and an opposition Liberal party that, in recent years, has behaved almost as submissively to the business community?
Since the 1990s, Ottawa has washed its hands of responsibility for the most exploited workers in the booming Canadian economy. It no longer sets any minimum wage at all.
Rather that raise the federal minimum wage periodically to accommodate inflation and provide workers with a subsistence income, successive governments have bowed to the pressure of groups like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Federation of Independent Business and refused to address the issue.
International joke
Instead, Ottawa now decrees that whatever minimum the provinces happen to set in their jurisdiction also serves as the country's 'national' standard. The result has been predictable. Minimum wage rates in all provinces have languished for years. Worse, they have gone backward in terms of purchasing power because of inflation.
Canadian minimum wage rates are now so low relative to the country's overall wealth that they amount to an international joke. The result has been a much-deserved black eye for Canada and another blow to the country's dismal international reputation on labour rights in general.
Provincial rates range from $7 an hour in Newfoundland to $8 in B.C. and Manitoba. (Territorial minimums are slightly higher.) However, several provinces have diluted even these small amounts by allowing reduced rates that discriminate against new workers. In fact, B.C. has not the highest minimum wage among the provinces but the lowest at $6 - the rate it allows employers to pay new workers. In Nova Scotia the 'new worker' rate is $6.75.
The U.S. pendulum finally swung back in favour of low-paid workers last November when the Republicans, after controlling both houses of the U.S. Congress for more than a decade, and blocking every attempt to raise the minimum wage, lost control to the Democrats.
The result was a 315-116 vote on Jan. 10 to boost the current U.S. minimum wage rate of $5.15 ($6.00 Cdn) to $5.85 ($6.85 Cdn) within 60 days, to $6.55 ($7.70) one year later and to $7.25 ($8.50) one year after that. There is also a strong move across the U.S. to raise rates even higher - to $10 or even more.
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has been among the most vocal groups demanding fair minimum wage laws in Canada. NUPGE
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