Minimum wage workers are getting a boost in BC.
Starting June 1st, the general minimum wage will be increasing to $15.20 an hour, and the lower discriminatory minimum wage for liquor servers is ending.
Since 2016, BC’s general minimum wage has increased from $11.35 to $15.20 per hour.
The latest general minimum wage increases from $14.60 per hour.
BC now has a minimum wage that is the highest of any province and starting next year, the increases for minimum wage will be tied to inflation.
According to the BC government, in 2020, 12% of employees in B.C. (244,900) earned less than $15.20 an hour.
Additionally, live-in camp leader minimum wage, per day, increases to $121.65 from $116.86; and resident caretaker minimum wage, per month, increases to $912.28, plus $36.56 per suite for those who manage nine to 60 residential suites and to $3,107.42 for 61 or more suites.
“In 2017, our government made a commitment to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by June 2021, through regular, measured and predictable increases,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour.
“As of tomorrow, we will have achieved – and surpassed – that goal, making sure workers who need regular and fair wage increases are getting them.”
The end of the discriminatory lower minimum wage, the province said, will also be a step towards ending the gender pay gap.
“About 80% of liquor servers are women, and the low liquor wage is a clear example of the gender pay gap we are fighting to eliminate,” said Grace Lore, Parliamentary Secretary of Gender Equity.
“Most minimum wage earners are women, often racialized women and newcomers who face barriers to accessing better-paying jobs. We need to work towards wages that workers can actually live on instead of being held back by.”
