A 91大黄鸭 business owner says consumers will pay for the minimum wage being raised to $15 by 2021.
Kim Williams, owner of the downtown shop Wild Kingdom, said small businesses will have to change their hours and raise prices to make up for increased wages.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to be that noticeable for people, but we have no choice as a small business and we want to stay open for those hours to make it convenient.鈥�
Williams said prices will go up in retail stores and restaurants and she is already concerned about adjusting her store鈥檚 hours.
鈥淚鈥檓 open seven days a week, so am I going to have to cut some of the evening hours out? Am I going to have to open later in the morning? The problem is that I have customers coming in at all times,鈥� she said.
Williams said the hardest hit with the increase in wages will be small businesses that employ local people who don鈥檛 have the education to work elsewhere.
鈥淚t鈥檚 that mom that鈥檚 been at home. It鈥檚 that girl out of school,鈥� she said.
Small Canadian businesses are already having a hard time competing with online stores and big box outlets, she said.
Williams has six employees. Currently, the minimum wage is $10.85 .
Former premier Christy Clark first announced a two-stage plan to raise the minimum wage last May. The first stage, last September, upped the rate to $10.85, based on a 10-cent inflation increase and an extra 30 cents that the province committed.
There will be an impact on businesses any time the minimum wage is raised, according to Dan Rogers, executive director of the 91大黄鸭 Chamber of Commerce.
鈥淎ny setting of future rates should revolve around the consumer index and the cost of inflation,鈥� he said.
Rogers said many of the chamber鈥檚 members have employees who are paid above the minimum wage, but there is concern for small businesses.
鈥淭hose who are paying minimum wage, it will affect their labour cost so they鈥檒l have to adjust by passing on price increases to their customers or cut back hours of operation to manage their costs which may result in greater unemployment.
鈥淪o it鈥檚 a complex issue that isn鈥檛 solved by jacking up minimum wage or pulling a number together,鈥� he said.
He said the biggest message the chamber has received from its members is having long-term certainty for wages and having small businesses engaged in the conversation with the provincial government.
Michelle Novakowski, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, is making the argument for a living wage rather than increasing the minimum wage.
鈥淭he minimum wage is not a living wage. It traps people either in more than one job, working more than 40 hours a week, which puts children at risk because parents are out working to pay the rent. It also puts women in poverty, making them more dependant (on their partners),鈥� she said.
Novakowski said a majority of minimum wage workers are women and a majority of families living in poverty are families relying on single mothers. She can understand why the provincial government is raising the wage in increments but there needs to be a standard of living where people can afford rent and feed themselves, she said.
鈥淢inimum-wage people, some of them are living in their cars. They鈥檙e the working poor.鈥�
Novakowski thinks the living wage could reduce crime. In the society鈥檚 shopping-alternatives program, she said a majority of shop lifting is done for food.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e finding with our clients is groceries are what they鈥檙e stealing,鈥� she said.
Increasing the minimum wage to $15 is a step in the right direction because in some areas in B.C. $15 is considered to be the living wage, but the living wage will increase in the next two years to more than that amount, she said.
