Premier Christy Clark hikes B.C.'s minimum wage

Rob Shaw, timescolonist.com March 16, 2011 3:06 PM

Premier Christy Clark has announced an increase to the minimum wage in B.C. to $10.25 by May 2012. At a press conference in Victoria on Wednesday afternoon, Clark said the increase will be done in three stages, starting at $8.75 by May 1, $9.50 in November and $10.25 by May 2012. Currently, the wage is $8 an hour.  The government will also eliminate the training wage and create a new wage for liquor industry workers.

The legal minimum wages in each of Canada's provinces for 2010/2011 are as follows:

Province	Minimum Hourly Wage
Alberta	$8.80
British Columbia	$8.00
Manitoba	$9.50
New Brunswick	$9.00
Newfoundland and Labrador	$10.00
Northwest Territories	$9.00
Nova Scotia	$9.65
Nunavut	$10.00
Ontario	$10.25
Prince Edward Island	$8.70
Quebec	$9.50
Saskatchewan	$9.25
Yukon	$8.93

Employers can choose to pay more than the minimum wage if they wish to.

British Columbia has Canada's lowest minimum wage, at $8.00 per hour. New employees may not even receive this much. The "First Job/Entry Level" minimum wage in British Columbia is $6.00/hour until you have clocked up 500 hours paid work experience in Canada or another country. Other provinces do not have a special First Job/Entry Level wage.