Editor: Increasing minimum wage creates more unemployment. Minimum wage is meant for small business. The B.C. Federation of Labour and NDP opposition know nothing about the operation of a small business. Raising the minimum wage comes with baggage, like in a second marriage.
The baggage is called benefits. Here is an example. A small business has five full-time employees, two at $8 per hour and three at $10 per hour, and a fully-paid group insurance plan by the employer (life insurance, accidental death insurance, weekly indemnity, extended medical, dental, and vision care). If the minimum wage went to $10 per hour, the three employees at $10 per hour would have to be paid $12 per hour.
An employer must adjust the pay rates of all the employees if the minimum wage went up. Also the employer’s share of benefits now increases.
If the minimum wage went to $10 per hour, this sample small business has two choices to make. Those two choices would be to lay off the two employees at $8 per hour, or to increase the selling price of all products sold. All payroll costs have to be passed on to the consumer.
Joe Sawchuk,
Duncan