Student workers may have less money in their pockets as of later this month.
The provincial government announced last week the minimum wage for student workers will be $13 an hour, a reduction from $15.
Jaden Stewart, 16, an employee at a seasonal ice-cream store, isn’t about to complain or quit if her employer does choose to cut her wages.
“Honestly, I feel like it’s needed because I don’t feel that Canada can afford to be paying people such a high amount of money,” Stewart said. “I feel everybody over 18 is fine where they are at, but for a student, maybe it should drop down to what it was before.”
Stewart said she was making $13.60/hour last year — the then minimum wage. She would continue to work at $13/hour.
On Oct. 1, 2018 the minimum wage was increased to $15/hr by the then NDP government, completing its three-year goal after being elected in 2015 to increase the minimum wage; first moving from $11.20 to $12.20 in October 2016, which is when the lower server wage was abolished, then to $13.60 in 2017. On Oct. 1 minimum wage became $15/hr.
The UCP had promised to look at minimum wages, specifically for students, during its 2019 campaign. Under the proposal, which comes into effect June 26, employees under the age of 18 who do not attend school will continue to have a minimum wage of $15/hr.
At Cobs Bread Bakery in Okotoks it’s not going to change a thing — they have no intention of cutting its young employees wages.
There is some book-keeping involved, explained Kelly Hodgins, co-owner of Cobs in Okotoks.
“The thing with the change in the minimum wage is it doesn’t make sense because you have to pay them $15 an hour after 28 hours per week, which means more work for me, so I might as well pay them $15 across the board.”
She said there are three youths on staff and, depending on the week, they may work more than 28 hours a week.
She added telling an employee she is going to slash his or her wages is something she never hopes to do.
Sara Noyes, president of the Okotoks and District Chamber of Commerce, said the rapid increase of the minimum wage was “onerous” on small businesses in Okotoks.
“Even some parents felt that it was unnecessary to have $15 for a minimum wage for their kids,” Noyes said. “Combined with the feedback from parents and the expense on businesses, in retrospect I think that changing it so there is a student-minimum wage is prudent by the government.”
She said her concern at the outset is what is going to happen between a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old potential employee.
“Is it going to potentially create a concern of hiring a kid at 17-and-a-half versus a kid at 16-and-half because you have a longer window to pay them a smaller amount of money,” she said. “Hopefully, the experience of the young adult population of 18 to 20 years olds, some of their maturity, availability of hours they can work can offset the fact that some employers will have to pay them more.”
