OPINION | Yukon's minimum wage increase is a joke and an insult

Less than $10 a day.

That's the difference Yukon'sminimum wage increase which took effect April 1 makes to peoplewho work for the lowest possible wage in the territory; $9.60 morefor a full day's work.

Anyone who lives in Yukon knows you can't even get a decent sandwich and a cup of coffee for under $10, but that's what this government is calling an "increase."

Under the previous minimum wage of $11.51 an hour, if you worked full time eight hours a day, five days a week you made $1,850 a month or around $24,000 a year before taxes. Under the new wage of$12.71, an increase of $1.20, you would make around $2,030 a month or $26,400 a year.

That's not only a joke, it's an insult. It's also proof positive the government is out of touch with what it means to be working poor in the territory.

The Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC) calculates the living wage in Whitehorse at $18.57 per hour which means a difference of $1,015 per month, before tax, for minimum wage workers.

That's a huge discrepancy,whichcan be seen by comparing Yukon to its southern neighbour of B.C., where the minimum wage is$12.65 andthe living wage in Prince George a city comparable to Whitehorse is calculated at $16.51.

B.C. is set to raise its minimum wage to $13.85 an hour as of June 1, and to $15.20 an hour by 2021. Yukon does not have any such schedule, although the Yukon Employment Standards Board has recommended increasing minimum wage to $15.12by 2021, a suggestion the government has yet to accept. Yukonhas the lowest minimum wage of the territories.

Living in poverty

A living wage is calculated based on what a standardized family two kids and two adults needs to maintain a reasonable standard of living when both adults are working full time. The living wage in Whitehorse translates to a household salary of$77,250a year before taxes; two minimum wage earners in that same imaginary family bring home only about $52,800 a year.

One could argue the "family" proposed by the living wage is an outdated mode of calculation heteronormative and patriarchal and it also makes comparing minimum and living wage more complicated than simply equating them.

One can see, however, that it's difficult to survive on minimum wage as a single person or a single parent when you know that, according to YAPC's 2018 living wage report, 16 per cent of Whitehorse households and 41 per cent of single-mother householdswere livingin poverty, as of 2012.

Data from the 2016 census show 33.5 per cent of Yukoners make $30,000 a year or less.

Minister of Community Services John Streicker said at the time the wage increase was announced that most lower-wage earners in the territory aren't working for minimum wage, but at a rate of $13 to $15 an hour a difference of $0.29 to $2.29.

A recent informal analysis of the kinds of jobs available on job board Yuwin during a two-week period found the majority paid between $15 to $20 an hour.

If that's what the market will bear and one assumes it is, as that's what it'salready paying why not just make the minimum wage $15 an hour right now? Why keep itso low?

Minimum wage is essentially what an hour of a human life is deemed to be worth at its base rate. It's the currency on which the entire economy turns; when you set a minimum wage that does not allow an earner a decent standard of living healthy food, reasonable housing and freedom from the fear and strain poverty generates you are stating that you do not feel that life is worth these things.

How many people are actually working at that rate is irrelevant to its function as a base rate for what work and the quality of life of a worker is worth.

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