Despite being April Fool’s Day, it is no joke that B.C. now has the lowest minimum wage in Canada.
“Today is the day that British Columbia officially moves into last place with lowest minimum wage in Canada,” said Irene Lanzinger, president of the BC Federation of Labour (BCFED).
The current minimum wage in British Columbia is $10.45 an hour.
So, if I understand this…if I worked at the current minimum wage (and was able to not have any deductions made, no costs for food, rent and other life necessities) it would take me approximately 2.5 years to save up enough money to purchase a ticket to a moderate 10 000 dollar a plate intimate dinner with access to Ms. Clark’s attention so I could inform her that ‘ten bucks sucks’?
If on the other hand I lived in the real world…I’d probably never have my voice heard by the powers that be. Oh well.
My summer job out of high school (1969) paid minimum wage of $1.50/hour. I was heading to university in the fall and my yearly (two terms) tuition was going to be $457. In other words I needed to work 305 hours to pay for my yearly tuition. That is about 7.5 40 hour weeks or less than two months.
In my final year of university (73-74), my yearly tuition was still $457. Minimum wage was now $2.25/hr (I was actually doing much better at a different job making $2.85/hr). But even at minimum wage, I needed only 203 hours to pay for my yearly tuition. That is about 5 40 hour weeks, slightly more than a month.
Today, tuition would cost me about $5000. At today’s minimum wage of $10.45, it would take somebody 478 hours to pay for their yearly tuition. That is 12 40 hour weeks or three months.
Not sure if the minimum wage is the problem or if tuition is the problem, but no wonder student debt is a problem.