A Well-Deserved $2 Raise
The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. Mark Leger is the editor of Huddle and the Director of News Content for Acadia Broadcasting.
I was going through a drive-thru with a family member last weekend and he gave the employee handling payments a $20-bill for around $16 worth of food. “Keep the change, the rest is for you,” he said. “Really, are you sure?” said the employee. “Of course, keep it,” my family member said.
I was in the Moncton area last week for my son’s basketball game and again went through a drive-thru on our way home to buy some food. I handed the man taking payments some spare change for a tip, all I had at the time. That’s not very much money, I thought to myself, I hope I didn’t insult him.
I used to think giving tips, and how much, was based on the quality of the service. I’m still more generous if the service and food are good but I also feel like I’m helping someone who doesn’t get paid enough; like I contribute to a subsidy program for low-wage workers.
In February, I wrote a column shortly after New Brunswick announced it was raising the minimum wage by 5 cents, from $11.70 to $11.75. The Progressive Conservative government was rightly criticized–and mocked–by people like me who couldn’t fathom such a meagre increase in the midst of a pandemic. Especially while we praised the courage of low-wage workers on the front lines serving people, like those in retail and restaurant establishments that remained open when infection rates were relatively high.
The announcement inspired a satirical piece in The Manatee that I thought captured best the ridiculous nature of the announced increase. “New Brunswick man frozen in ice since 1855 thinks 5 cent wage hike quite generous.”
Related: Brother, Can You Spare A Nickel?
The government tried to defend its decision at the time, saying the increase was tied to the consumer price index that had risen 0.22 percent in 2020. So, it was really an act of bureaucratic indifference, the product of a formula to determine minimum wage increases every year.
On Thursday, the government wore its heart on its sleeve, so to speak, when labour minister Trevor Holder, who represents a riding in Saint John with a high poverty rate, announced a $2-an-hour increase to the minimum wage over the course of a year, a shocking leap forward for a government that had been so miserly just months earlier.
Holder went from actively defending the 5-cent increase in February to admitting he was embarrassed by it on Thursday.
“We are currently dead last in the country in terms of our minimum wage and significantly behind our Atlantic Canadian neighbours,” said Holder at a news conference. “This fact has been troubling me as minister of labour for some time. To be frank, it’s downright embarrassing.”
“In a province where we have some of the highest poverty levels in Canada we have a moral imperative to do better and this will surely help. This, at the end of the day, is the right thing to do.”
I’m not insensitive to the concerns of the small businesses that don’t think they can manage such steep increases in a short period of time. Huddle reporters wrote several stories chronicling their concerns.
Luc Erjavec, the regional vice-president for Restaurants Canada, told Huddle reporter Tyler Mclean the timing could not be worse for restaurant owners. He says most federal subsidies to help restaurants have ended and eighty percent of them will no longer qualify for the federal labour subsidy.
“Our industry is treading water at best, and they just throw us a brick instead of a lifeline,” said Erjavec. “And then, all of a sudden, we’re getting the largest minimum wage increases in 40 years at a time when half of the restaurants in New Brunswick are still not making money.”
John Wishart, the CEO of the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce, says businesses are still vulnerable, even though Holder said the government brought in the wage hike in part because the economy was showing signs of recovery. He also said the province hasn’t been supportive enough throughout the pandemic.
“Everyone deserves a decent wage, but I think we need to be very careful, especially right now, when the economy is still, despite Minister Holder’s words, not quite as solid as we hoped it might be,” Wishart told Huddle reporter Sam Macdonald.
“Where is the support for the SME (small and medium enterprise) sector? New Brunswick has not been leading the pack in terms of financial assistance to the SME sector through Covid.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard on businesses, of course, but there has always been pushback on attempts to significantly raise the minimum wage, which at $13.75 will still be far below what organizations like the Human Development Council and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives say is the true “living wage” needed to meet basic needs ($20.75 in Fredericton, $18.35 in Moncton, and $19.55 in Saint John).
The time to start playing catchup is now, especially with the rising cost of living that may or may not come down as we emerge from the pandemic.
It says something that Progressive Conservative leaders in this region are realizing that living costs are too high and the wages too low. Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston opposed rent control as opposition leader but changed his mind and extended it only months after winning the last election. Now, Blaine Higgs, who is very sensitive to the concerns of business leaders, has announced a steep increase to the minimum wage.
As I was writing this column, I took a break and my daughter and I went to the store to buy treats for her sleepover this weekend. As we were paying at the counter, we got talking to the teller, who loved Ella’s purse and told us she had a daughter too. Now an adult but still living with her mother, the daughter has struggled all her life with health issues but helps around the house, cleaning and cooking while her mother works until late at night in a retail job.
I don’t know the teller’s entire life circumstances, of course, but I sensed that an additional $2 an hour, or more, would make a meaningful difference. At fast-food outlets, restaurants, or coffee shops, I could tip someone like this. It’s not done at places like this store, even though her customer service was top-notch, but she deserves the money, nonetheless. This significant boost in the minimum wage is for people like her. As Holder said himself, it’s the right thing to do.
Do you have feedback on this column or other stories in Huddle? Send me an e-mail: [email protected]. Or give me a call: 506-654-0393.
Banner image: Jonathan Cooper/Unsplash.