Saskatchewan to increase minimum wage to $11.81 on Oct. 1

After all the salutes to frontline workers, the hearts on windows and the hailing of essential workers as heroes, Carla Beck says those words ring hollow without fair compensation.

The NDP’s labour critic was disappointed to hear that Saskatchewan’s minimum wage will increase by only 36 cents per hour to $11.81, with the change taking effect Oct. 1.

“If people are working full-time in this province, they shouldn’t have to stop in at the food bank on the way home from work,” Beck said Friday.

Beck said the raise will work out to less than $65 dollars per month for most full-time employees — not enough to cover the added cost of living.

“That can be eaten up very quickly for those who are making minimum wage (by) one trip to the grocery store (or) one tank of gas,” she said.

“Again, these are folks who in many cases have been working on the front lines in our grocery stores, and getting us through the pandemic and working in retail. And this really isn’t going to help them be able to lift themselves out of poverty.”

According to the Retail Council of Canada, Saskatchewan currently has the lowest hourly minimum wage in the country. The next-lowest is in New Brunswick, where it’s $11.75.

Nunavut has the highest minimum wage in Canada, at $16 an hour. B.C. is next at $15.20, with Alberta third at $15.

In a media release, the Saskatchewan government said the province’s minimum wage is reviewed annually and is calculated using an indexation formula. The formula equally weighs changes to the Consumer Price Index and Average Hourly Wage for Saskatchewan.

“Dealing with COVID-19 over the past year and a half has been a difficult time for everyone in Saskatchewan,” Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan said in the release.

“The provincial government has a strong framework in place to ensure that we are supporting both businesses and workers as we move into recovery after the pandemic. As life returns to normal, sustainable and predictable increases to our minimum wage help ensure that everyone will be able to benefit from a strong and growing Saskatchewan in the future.”

The government noted there have been 13 increases to the minimum wage, for a total increase of over 48 per cent, since 2007.

Beck argued the formula used to determine the minimum wage only keeps low earners at the bottom.

Canada’s Consumer Price Index for April was up 3.4 per cent year over year. The cost of transportation was up 9.4 per cent year over year, shelter rose 3.2 per cent, and health and personal care was up three per cent.

“This wage simply doesn’t keep pace with that and doesn’t keep pace with those essentials that have really gone up over the last year,” Beck said.

She says more than 65 per cent of minimum-wage earners are women. A third have graduated from post-secondary education and a third are older than 35.

These are not teenagers working part-time jobs and living at home, she said.

“Many times, these are workers who have children and who are trying to juggle children, and who are trying to juggle two and three jobs and maybe child care to pay the bills,” Beck said.