Merci, Madam la Presidente. In August, this government announced a new approach to adjustment of the territorial minimum wage, where it will be increased in relation to the consumer price index and the average hourly wage in the NWT. How is this going to ensure people get a decent standard of living?
The factors resulting in the setting of a minimum wage were reviewed for several years running by a minimum wage committee, which included business and public representatives with ECE representatives making a report to the Minister that was then kept secret. A few facts from their reviews stand out and from other recent events:
A minimum wage is nowhere near the living wage regularly calculated by the territorial social justice NGO Alternatives North.
Few people are actually paid the minimum wage but about 9 percent of the workforce benefited from the COVIDrelated Wage TopUp Program showing the inadequacy of our minimum wage.
The minimum wage is way too low to live on, and employers can't attract workers in the current competitive hiring environment. Anyone relying on the minimum wage for their income has to have more than one job.
Proportionately, it's large employers that pay low wages, such as Walmart, Canadian Tire, Tim Horton's, McDonald's, and none of those businesses, their bottom lines, none of them are in danger.
When you look at it, the setting of the minimum wage is a deal between business and government where workers have little to no say. The higher the minimum wage the more the private sector has to provide for workers. The lower the minimum wage the higher the costs to government for social support programs such as healthcare and more.
A low minimum wage is a public subsidy for business. I operate on the principle that if a person is working, they should be able to maintain a dignified minimum standard of living working should give you enough money to live on. That's the premise behind calculation of a living wage, which provides the basic basket of necessities for a person or family. That's where we should be going, Madam Speaker. I'll have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on where we're going to get this new approach to a minimum wage. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Member for Thebacha.
