June 18, 1998
MINIMUM WAGE HIKE BACKED
"I think we've got a pretty honest and fair review," Labor Minister Murray Smith said of the report, presented by Calgary-Fort MLA Wayne Cao. "We've now got a platform to take some solid recommendations to cabinet and on to caucus." Cao, working with officials from Alberta Labor, has been reviewing employment standards regulations - including the minimum wage - since January. He told the meeting of the standing policy committee on financial planning and human resources that the review sent out questionnaires, conducted focus and discussion groups and accepted submissions from interested parties. "The message is quite clear," Cao said after the presentation, referring to the 97% support for a minimum wage and 86% support for an increase in that minimum wage that the questionnaires found. "With those types of numbers it looks like we've got to do something," Clint Dunford, minister of Advanced Education and Career Development, said. Alberta's minimum wage was last raised in 1992 by 50 cents to the current $5. Cao found support for increases of up to $10 an hour but said he wasn't making any specific recommendation to the committee on numbers. About 33,000 Albertans are working for minimum wage - about 2% of the labor force - and just under half of those work in the hospitality industry, the committee heard. "We hope they approve this because the real value of the minimum wage has eroded substantially over the past 20 years," Gil McGowan, spokesman for the Alberta Federation of Labor, said. "It's no longer a living wage." Liberal labor critic Hugh MacDonald said his party wants to see the minimum bumped up a buck at least. "It's a good idea because these people have no disposable income," MacDonald. "They're falling behind." The minimum wage report is part of an overall review of employment standards regulations, due to be completed in 1999. Next Story: FIREBUG GETS PROBATION Previous Story: NDS, SOCREDS STILL IN FIGHTING MOOD AFTER VOTES TALLIED
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