FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EDMONTON – Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) President Gil McGowan responded to the federal government’s minimum wage raise from $16.65 to $17.30 on April 1st and the Government of Alberta’s unwillingness to raise the Alberta minimum wage:

“The Federal Government’s raise in the minimum wage is sensible. It comes close to matching the Consumer Price Index and will ensure that as many as 30,000 federally regulated workers across Canada will have a better capacity to meet their household needs.

“What is disappointing is that the provincial UCP Government is not following this example. Alberta workers have had a frozen minimum wage for five and a half years at $15 and $13 for young workers.

“In those years, inflation has soared. Basic household costs like housing, food and electricity have risen at breakneck speed. But the UCP has done nothing to protect Alberta workers. In fact, as of October of this year, the UCP will have left Alberta workers with the lowest minimum wage in Canada.

“That means Alberta workers deserve to be making $17.52, which is close to the new federal minimum wage. And as a young person’s work is not worth any less than anyone else’s, the youth minimum wage needs to be done away with as well.

“Minimum Wage workers bore the brunt of the economic downturn of the 2010’s and did many of the tough and dangerous jobs of the COVID pandemic. They deserve a raise that matches the pace of inflation.”

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MEDIA CONTACT:
John Ashton
Director of Communications, AFL
Email: jashton@afl.org

BACKGROUND

The chart below shows the rate of inflation and what corresponding increase in the minimum wage would be:

The Consumer Price Index in the above chart is calculated from October to October from each year, starting at October of 2018, when the $15 minimum wage was set. Source data from Statistics Canada can be found here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000401