With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/526329
The Bare Minimum T h e M a t r i x West Coast cities weigh the benefits of a $15 minimum wage by Trevor Melanson W hile B.C.'s minimum wage will see a bump this fall, increasing to $10.45 from $10.25, not everyone thinks the changes (the minimum wage is now indexed to inflation and increases every September) are enough to make B.C., and particularly Vancouver, an affordable place to live. Indeed, some argue that Vancouver should set its own, city-based minimum wage—an idea not without precedent. CITY STATUS RESERvATIoNS Mayor Ed Murray signed a $15 minimum wage into law last June. The wage is going up to $15 in stages, increasing over three years for large firms and seven for small ones. last November, voters passed a referendum to increase the Bay Area's minimum wage to $15 by 2018, after which it will be tied to inflation. It had 77 per cent approval. In May, city council voted 14-1 to increase l.A.'s minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 by 2020, a 67 per cent increase over the next five years. In 2022, it will be tied to inflation. Mayor Gregor Robertson supports a $15 minimum wage for B.C. How about just Vancouver? "It could be a discussion with the premier, but I think it's more important that we see it across the province," he told the Globe and Mail. "Every operator I'm talking to is in panic mode, trying to figure out what the new world will look like," Washington Restaurant Association CEO Anthony Anton told Seattle magazine in a March feature. In February, local bookstore Borderlands Books announced it was closing up shop after 18 years. To pay for a $15 minimum wage, "we would need to increase our sales by a minimum of 20 per percent," the owners wrote on their blog. local restaurant owners argue that tips should be included when calculating a higher minimum wage. Otherwise "there is just no room for us to be able to afford this increase and stay in business," restaurateur Caroline Styne told the Los Angeles Times. Premier Christy Clark thinks B.C. cannot afford a $15 minimum wage, telling the Vancouver Sun in March: "The economy is still quite fragile and we need to make sure we're supporting small businesses, which are huge job creators." SEATTLE LOS ANGELES VANCOUVER *DATA FOR MARCH 2015 | ZIllOW, MlS c= converted to Canadian (as of June 2) JUly 2015 BCBusiness 27 $427,704 c $903,302 c $662,959 c $660,700 Average home price (metro area)* restaurant study 1-2% rise in operating costs with a 10 per cent increase to the minimum wage* 0.7% the typical price increase observed following a 10 per cent bump. other industries saw no change* *According to a 2014 study by University of California, Berkeley, professors SAN FRANCiSCO