If you’re slinging hamburgers and tossing french fries, you’ll be getting a 28-per-cent raise over the next year.
Premier Christy Clark announced gradual increases to the minimum wage in B.C. on Wednesday – from the present $8 an hour to $10.25 by May 2012.
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Chamber of Commerce has taken a neutral position on the decision, said president Jeremy Bekar.
“We do believe it’s going to affect restaurants because they’re pretty much the only establishments that pay minimum wage, really.”
The move was Clark’s first task after being sworn in earlier this week and it impressed the employees at Subway on 224th Street in downtown Maple Ridge.
It’s the first thing owner Jay Sekhon heard from his employees when he came into the store on Thursday. But as business costs go, up so will prices for a Subway sandwich. He expects to hear from head office about those increases and, “they will adjust it accordingly.”
He pointed out that his store already starts workers at $9 an hour, with wages topping out around $14 an hour. He doesn’t expect those to change even though the base rate goes up.
However, servers in local pubs or in restaurants that serve alcohol don’t have as much to celebrate.
While a fast-food worker will eventually get a minimum wage of $10.25, those who serve alcohol and depend on tips will only get a minimum wage of $9.
The alcohol server rate is based on a similar model in Ontario, and will mean a bit of a double standard, says Brent Molander, manager of The Jolly Coachman in Pitt Meadows.
The increase, combined with tougher drinking and driving laws passed last fall and the HST, has piled on costs for pubs and could put some out of business, he added.
At the Golden Ears Pub, server Kyla Hill was OK with the split rate. “Anything is better than nothing, I guess,” she said.
“It’s the government. They’re going to do what they feel is appropriate for us.”
But bartender Julie MacMillan said servers already get a raw deal from the government. When it comes to collecting employment insurance, servers can only get a percentage of their paycheques in EI payments, without considering their tips as income.
On the other hand, they have to declare their tips on their income tax.
“Obviously, if you’re going to a lower wage, it should be for the 16-year-old kid that’s just starting out because they don’t have a mortgage and everything else, right?”
The previous $6-an-hour training wage for youth will also be eliminated as of this May 1, which is also the date of the first stage of the minimum wage raise to $8.75. On Nov. 1, the next increase takes effect, raising the minimum wage to $9.50.
The minimum wage hikes could hurt smaller pubs and mom-and-pop operations and people should expect prices to go up across the board, MacMillan added.
She said business seems to have recovered from last year’s implementation of the HST and new drinking and driving laws as customers have adjusted and returned as a result.
“People are just more conscious of it, which I think is a positive thing.”
A spokesman for Red Robin Restaurants said no layoffs or changes are planned because the wage increase was expected and included in budgets.
According to Statistics Canada, only 2.3 per cent of employees in B.C. earned $8/hr or less (about 41,200 workers) in 2009 and the average hourly wage in B.C. is $23 an hour.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce suggested the alcohol server rate when it was consulted by the government.
“We are glad to see a tip differential … the ratcheting effect on wages remains a concern, but this is an excellent example of how the chamber network provides an invaluable resource for policy and decision makers,” said John Winter, president of the BC chamber.
