The Burnaby business community is warning against increasing B.C.’s minimum wage too fast.
Businesses want to see increases to the minimum wage made regularly over a period of several years, according to a report released last week by the Burnaby Board of Trade.
“While the discussion around the minimum wage often focuses on raising it to $15, there is little consideration for the impacts of what happens to the worker already earning $15 or $18 or $20 per hour today,” said board of trade president and CEO Paul Holden in a press release. “Our members feel, and we agree, that if the minimum wage increases dramatically that there will be a knock-on effect where other wage levels would be forced up quicker than business may be able to handle.”
The report, which surveyed Burnaby Board of Trade members on issues related to the provincial government’s pledge to raise B.C.’s minimum wage to $15, found that most members (53 per cent) were supportive of increasing the province’s minimum wage. (The minimum wage is currently set to $11.35.)
Members were, however, concerned that if the wage is increased too fast, it would have a ripple effect on other wages paid to employees – especially those already earning more than $15 an hour, according to the report.
The board of trade and its members want the increases to the minimum wage to follow the consumer price index. This would provide businesses a predictable timeline that would allow them to properly plan and manage the increases, noted the report.
“We work hard to ensure the ideas, opinions and concerns of the business community are heard by all levels of government,” Holden said. “On the issue of a $15 per hour minimum wage, we want to see whatever plan emerges take into account how the business community, particularly small business, will be impacted.”
In October, the province established the Fair Wage Commission, an independent body tasked with making recommendations to guide the province toward a $15-an-hour minimum wage and a process on how the minimum wage should be regularly reviewed and increased once $15-an-hour is achieved, according to province.
The Burnaby Board of Trade will send the findings of its report to the commission.
The first round of public consultations wrap up this week, and the commission must deliver its first report to Minister of Labour Harry Bains by the end of the year. It’s expected the report will contain the commission’s recommendations about the timing of increases.
