The minimum wage should be tied to the economy, predictable, transparent, and removed from political interference.
One way of setting minimum wage that meets those criteria would be to take half the average hourly rate for non-unionised employees for the previous fiscal year and increase it by the annual provincial rate of inflation for that year.
Using that method, the 2019 minimum wage would have been $11.58 on April 1, 2019 instead of $11.40.
The current discussion about minimum wage in
Newfoundland and Labrador is entirely a political debate between two groups over the arbitrary number to be assigned as the minimum value for the labour of
about 13,000 workers
in the province.
That’s about five percent of the labour force in
Newfoundland and Labrador but the amount could have a larger impact on the
economy. That’s not because, as
proponents of a higher arbitrary number assert, more money in the pockets of
workers boosts the economy, but because about 40% of the labour force makes
less than the arbitrary number proposed by unions in the province.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour gives them a powerful argument for hourly wage increases for *their* members who would magically become minimum wage workers. This would create pressure to raise those wages back to their former position above the minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour gives them a powerful argument for hourly wage increases for *their* members who would magically become minimum wage workers. This would create pressure to raise those wages back to their former position above the minimum wage.
This is why the unions are concerned about the floor
price for labour in the province at all.
They look after the interests of their members. They want to use the
minimum valuation of labour as a means of achieving what they cannot through
collective bargaining.
On the other side of the argument, groups representing
employers oppose any increase in labour costs, understanding that the argument
is not really about minimum wage employees but about the rest of the labour
force.
Both sides employ evidence selected to support their
pre-determined conclusion. Much of this “evidence” is produced by organizations
tied financially and otherwise to one side or other of the debate over an
arbitrary number.
