Businesses have to pay their employees the high wage of $10.50 per hour because the government has mandated them to do so. Before the government legislated minimum wage was a time referred to by businesses as, “the good old days.”
At $10.50 an hour, an employee earns $420 for a 40-hour work week, $1,680 a month and $20,160 a year. Many employees work a 35-hour week. Their pay is $367.50 a week, $1,470 a month and $17,640 a year.
The poverty line for people living in BC is approximately $21,000 for a single person, approximately $25,000 for a single parent with one child, and approximately $37,000 for a couple with two children.
While people are earning $10.50 an hour, they see their payments for housing, food, heat, clothing, shoes, insurance, and transportation increasing. How are these people expected to improve their standard of living?
A wage of $13.50 per hour would barely bring the standard of living of those employees to the poverty line. That is not a possibility in the foreseeable future. It would mean treating employees as people.
Well, I don’t recall anyone saying business is ethical or moral.
Bob Abrahams
Nelson