BC minimum wage now the lowest in the country

[maryjane48]

not everyone can be in every high paid job. but if people make more they spend more so how can that be bad ?

[JLives]

Minimum wage jobs are not supposed to be for adults in the prime of their lives. They're meant for students, young adults. If you're an adult in the prime of your life and find yourself in a job making $10.45 an hour then is that the responsibility of your employer or yours?

If there enough people wanting your job at minimum wage that it does not need to be paid more, why should it? There's a reason that oil patch jobs pay so much ( or used to), because people wouldn't do them for less. Isn't the responsibility on the individual to gain a skill that allows them to be paid more, rather than mandate that employer must pay you more?

It's irrelevant who a job is "supposed" to be for. The reality is adults are needing to work so they can live. It's not like they can just not work. And I have given very good examples of who these people are. Especially with women who worked in the trades. Try being a middle aged woman who can't do physical labour anymore and doesn't have office skills. Tell me where they can earn a decent living where somebody will actually hire them? Or people with lower IQ's? Or how about ugly people? Sadly, they do have a much harder time finding employment. All real people who need to live and all of them deserve a decent living in exchange for full time employment.

The days of students and seniors being the only ones working these jobs is OVER, that economy no longer exists.

[goatboy]

It's irrelevant who a job is "supposed" to be for. The reality is adults are needing to work so they can live. It's not like they can just not work. And I have given very good examples of who these people are. Especially with women who worked in the trades. Try being a middle aged woman who can't do physical labour anymore and doesn't have office skills. Tell me where they can earn a decent living where somebody will actually hire them? Or people with lower IQ's? Or how about ugly people? Sadly, they do have a much harder time finding employment. All real people who need to live and all of them deserve a decent living in exchange for full time employment.

The days of students and seniors being the only ones working these jobs is OVER, that economy no longer exists.

It's not irrelevant. A doctor gets paid a lot because they had to invest a lot of their own time and money gaining the skills to do a job that a lot of people can't. If a lot of people can and will do a job, the market dictates that the job is worth less.

Using your example of a middle aged woman who worked in the trades and can no longer do the physical labour. Did they consider this when they became a trades person? If they did, did they budget accordingly knowing that they would need to spend money to go back to school and train in a field that they would then be able to work in after middle age? If they didn't, whose fault is that?

Just because the economy has forced people to actually gain a skill to make more money does not equate to having to pay unskilled people more. However, as someone else has pointed out, if a business needs to charge X while paying Y as a salary, why would X not increase when Y does and then the value of Y to X is still the same. Basic economics, isn't it? The business owner isn't in business to make less money.

[goatboy]

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[goatboy]

not everyone can be in every high paid job. but if people make more they spend more so how can that be bad ?

Well, because the things they spend their money on will just cost more. That's why the cost of a house in Fort McMurray was so much more than Gander. And it's not because of the great weather.

[maryjane48]

you do know i hope that more money being spent that is not from debt is a good thing for a country right ?

[LTD]

Do you realize that paying people 15 bucks an hour will drive the cost of everything up so that soup and sandwich I buy for 12 bucks will jump to 20 resulting in me not buying it and businesses laying off people or closing resulting in more people on ei which also isn't good for the country. Business owners are going to recover those extra costs somewhere guess whos going to pay the price for unskilled people being overpaid.

[maryjane48]

sounds like you need a raise . so name some food products that have gone down in price .

[goatboy]

you do know i hope that more money being spent that is not from debt is a good thing for a country right ?

Higher minimum wage will correspond to more money being spent as a whole but doesn't mean that it will actually buy more, things will just cost more.

[Atomoa]

Still waiting for that dramatic price jump of a hamburger because of the 10.25 BC min wage law.

[Atomoa]

Business owners are going to recover those extra costs somewhere guess whos going to pay the price for unskilled people being overpaid.

If people stop shopping then they won't have anyway of recovering the costs. It's a two way street. Either business goes broke or they accept smaller profit margins to keep their customers while paying people a acceptable wage.

Guess who is going to pay the price for unskilled people being underpaid? You are - with higher taxes and lesser services. Employers who pay low wages don't pay enough for their employees to survive on. That's where you come as the taxpayer and make up the difference for the business owner - the nice guy that you are - because otherwise the business owners employees would quit because the pay isnt enough to survive on and there is no help available outside their wages for them.

Same goes for the churches and foodbanks. So nice of them to pad the pockets of all the business owners in Kelowna who pay employees wages that they have to get foodhampers on.

[Omnitheo]

Do you realize that paying people 15 bucks an hour will drive the cost of everything up so that soup and sandwich I buy for 12 bucks will jump to 20 resulting in me not buying it and businesses laying off people or closing resulting in more people on ei which also isn't good for the country. Business owners are going to recover those extra costs somewhere guess whos going to pay the price for unskilled people being overpaid.

Just gonna repeat this here

[Even Steven]

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/co ... ry2=Canada

Consumer Prices in Canada are 15.55% lower than in Australia
Consumer Prices Including Rent in Canada are 21.41% lower than in Australia
Rent Prices in Canada are 33.23% lower than in Australia
Restaurant Prices in Canada are 18.19% lower than in Australia
Groceries Prices in Canada are 11.32% lower than in Australia

[goatboy]

Still waiting for that dramatic price jump of a hamburger because of the 10.25 BC min wage law.

It would be interesting to compare minimum wages to the cost of a Big Mac as a percent. Bet it's pretty constant. Did a quick search and couldn't really find anything. Anyone remember what a big Mac cost in 1980 when minimum wage was $3.65? It's what, $5.25 now? Relative to minimum wage that shoudl put it around $1.80, which was probably right.

If minimum wage increases by inflation than prices shoudl match that and no one falls behind. If it were to quickly jump to say, $15, then how would a buisness make up for that additional cost?

[The Green Barbarian]

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