A minimum-wage hike to $15 an hour would be a first-term priority for an New Democrat government, NDP Leader John Horgan told an election readiness conference gathered at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.
In a room of 450 committed campaigners, Horgan accused Premier Christy Clark of choosing to keep B.C.’s minimum wage of $10.45 an hour one of the lowest in Canada.
“It’s not good enough that people are working full time or more just to keep their heads above water, and it’s not good enough that this generation will actually be worse off than their parents when it comes to affordability and opportunity,” Horgan said.
The Liberal government has taken a gradual approach to minimum-wage hikes. It goes up in September to $10.85, then to $11.25 the following year. Ontario’s minimum, highest in the country, is $11.25, but the B.C. Federation of Labour has been campaigning for a level that would more closely approximate a living wage, a calculation based in part on the everyday cost of living.
“Minimum wage is no longer something earned just by teenagers in their first jobs. Students, parents, seniors, new Canadians in every part of the economy are paid minimum wage,” Horgan said.
“The premier, who takes a $50,000-a-year private top-up to her nearly $200,000 public salary, thinks $10.45 an hour is enough for people to get by on. I disagree."