Advertisement

B.C. announces plan to hike minimum wage

FILE PHOTO: The minimum wage in British Columbia will rise by 50 cents to $11.35 an hour in mid-September.
FILE PHOTO: The minimum wage in British Columbia will rise by 50 cents to $11.35 an hour in mid-September. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

VICTORIA – The minimum wage in British Columbia will rise by 50 cents to $11.35 an hour in mid-September.

The ministry says there will be an identical increase of 50 cents to the minimum wage for liquor servers, bringing it to $10.10 per hour in September.

The Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Ministry says the new wages include a 20-cent increase based on British Columbia’s 2016 Consumer Price Index, plus an additional 30 cents.

Breaking news from Canada and around the world sent to your email, as it happens.

The minimum wage was raised to $10.85 an hour last September.

Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said at the time that still left 500,000 workers earning poverty level wages of below $15 an hour.

In a news release, the ministry says when self-employed people are excluded, there were 93,800 workers earning the minimum wage last year in a workforce of just under two million people.

Story continues below advertisement

The ministry says it will announce more details later on increases in the daily rates for live-in home support and camp leaders, monthly rates for resident caretakers and the pay rates affecting farm workers harvesting certain fruits and vegetables.

Sponsored content

AdChoices