Canadian Labour Reporter

lAbour brieFs 2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 alberta increases minimum wage edMonton — On Sept. 1, minimum wage workers in Alber- ta will be getting a raise. On May 28, Alberta announced an increase to its minimum wage — from $9.95 to $10.20 per hour. The liquor server minimum wage will also rise, from $9.05 to $9.20 an hour. Prompted by rising provincial incomes and cost of living, the increase was based on a formula that links the general wage rate to annual increases in average week- ly earnings and the consumer price index (CPI) in Alberta. This past year, average weekly earnings rose 3.3 per cent in the province, with the CPI rising to 1.4 per cent. That average — 2.3 per cent — translates to a 25-cent increase per hour. "While Alberta has the lowest percentage of employees earning minimum wage in the country, these individuals form an impor- tant part of our workforce. Many work in the service and retail sec- tors and are gaining the experi- ence they need to succeed," said Kyle Fawcett, the province's new minister of jobs, skills, training and labour. "These changes will give them a modest increase while keeping the viability of their employers in mind as well." When weighted against the rest of the country, a relatively low number of Albertan workers earn the minimum wage. About 25,700, or 1.5 per cent of employ- ees earn the base wage rate, which compares to 6.8 per cent nation- ally, and 9.1 per cent in Ontario, according to the labour ministry. ontario pension plan a costly nightmare: Fraser institute toRonto — The wallets of workers in Ontario could bleed thousands of dollars each year if the government's proposal for a provincial pension plan gets the go- ahead, according to a new report from the Fraser Institute. Released by the public policy research organization on May 28, Evaluating the Proposed Ontario Pension Plan noted that the true cost of a provincially regulated re- tirement scheme could cost up to $3,420 a year. According to Philip Cross, an economist with the institute and former chief economic analyst for Statistics Canada, employers will also have to cut future wages or oth- er benefits to meet the demands of the mandatory pension plan. "Unless there's an increase in productivity, employers can't sud- denly increase compensation to employees unless they raise prices in an increasingly competitive marketplace," Cross explained. "However you slice it — lower wages and less hiring, or higher prices at the till — it's bad news for Ontario workers." After the federal government balked on expanding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Ontario's Lib- eral government decided to forge ahead alone, and introduced a framework for a provincial pension plan earlier this year. Dubbed the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, the proposal would require workers to contribute 1.9 per cent of their earnings into a retirement plan, which their em- ployer would have to match. This, coupled with mandatory CPP contributions, would cost Ontar- ians thousands of dollars, Cross said, adding the plan is based on the faulty assumption that workers don't save enough for retirement. "Its sheer size and concentration will leave the fund vulnerable to a spectacularly poor investment de- cision…potentially offsetting any gains made by low fund manage- ment costs," Cross added. In order to bolster the nest eggs of Ontario's workers, Cross said the government should instead foster strong income growth, which allows both spending and saving to increase. Workers at online retailer Amazon.com's German warehouses extended a strike on June 1. This labour action was the latest move in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions with the union Verdi. The call for further action came after 600 staff walked off the job in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig in May. FoRMeRLY CLV RePoRts serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.labour-reporter.com Published weekly by omson Reuters Canada Ltd. subscription rate: $595 per year Customer service tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com Website: www.carswell.com director, Carswell Media Karen Lorimer Publisher John Hobel Managing editor Todd Humber news editor Sabrina Nanji | (416) 649-9348 sabrina.nanji@thomsonreuters.com news editor Liz Foster | (416) 298-5129 liz.foster@thomsonreuters.com Marketing Co-ordinator Travis Chan | (416) 609-5872 travis.chan@thomsonreuters.com © 2014 Carswell, a division of omson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. 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