Alberta’s minimum wage will be one of the highest in the country Saturday as the NDP gets closer to its goal of raising the wage to $15 an hour by 2018.
Effective Saturday, Oct. 1, Alberta’s minimum wage will be raised by $1 an hour to $12.20 per hour.
After Saturday, the only regions with a higher minimum wage in Canada will be Nunavut ($13 an hour) and Northwest Territories ($12.50 an hour).
READ MORE: A look at minimum wages across Canada
Alberta’s minimum wage is expected to go up to $13.60 an hour next year and reach $15 an hour by Oct. 1, 2018.
Opposition parties have slammed the Alberta NDP for moving ahead with its minimum-wage increases, saying the wage hikes are too much too fast and threaten to further hurt businesses still reeling from the slump in oil prices. But in an interview with The Canadian Press Tuesday, Premier Rachel Notley said she rejects the notion that a minimum-wage hike will hurt the provincial economy.
READ MORE: It’s official: Alberta’s minimum wage will be $15 an hour by 2018
Notley said her government is trying to strike a balance between supporting businesses and tackling inequality.
“We’re trying to strike a balance between supporting innovators and business owners while at the same time getting rid of what is also an economy-killing level of inequality that existed in our provinces, where people who worked full time had to stop at the food bank on the way home because they could not possibly feed their families based on a full-time salary that we pay here in Alberta.”
READ MORE: Reality check: Is a $15 minimum wage bad for the economy?
Notley said a small business tax cut and various grants will help ease some of the burden of the minimum-wage hike.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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