[bootlegga]

andyt andyt:

BC raised the min wage from 8 to 10.25 an hour in just over a year. BC has Canada's strongest economy. It has the second lowest unemployment rate in Canada next to Manitoba's, where the min wage is higher than BC.

That's a non-sequitur - you imply that BC's economy is super-charged because of the minimum wage hike, but that's not necessarily true.

If raising the minimum wage super-charged an economy, Alberta should have bucked the recession, because ours went to $11.20 last fall.

andyt andyt:

$1:

Minimum wage increases are 'supercharging' economy, says U.S. multimillionaire
'People who are defending these low wages today essentially are free riders,' says Nick Hanauer

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3124917

I'm not defending low wages - as I've always said, raising the minimum wage typically does very little in the long run to reduce poverty. And make no mistake, I don't want people in poverty - those in poverty cost society more because increased health care costs and sometimes even legal costs when they resort to crime to survive.

Sure, it provides a short term bump for minimum wage earners, but eventually, as inflation kicks in as companies pass along their costs to consumers, those gains are eventually eroded.

As for what would work better, skills training to make people more marketable.

That doesn't necessarily mean everyone goes to university, but helping people go from working at the Gap/Wal-Mart/McDonald's to working as a hair stylist, receptionist, welder or plumber would go a long way to reducing poverty.