Sometimes, a stereotype becomes so embedded in mainstream culture that we completely fail to recognize its dubious roots and, erroneously, take it for granted that it is true.
I fear that this has become the case with the minimum wage earner. Today, we perceive the minimum wage earner as a teenager who works part-time after school at a mom-and-pop business, has no bills to pay because they live at home with mom and dad, and is only concerned with earning a little bit of pocket change for gas money and leisure weekend activities.
Unfortunately, this image is grossly distorted from the truth.
In fact, in Metro Vancouver, there are well over 100,000 people who make a meagre enough living to be called the working poor, not including students.
Moreover, 61 per cent are between the ages of 30 and 54, and 42 per cent having children to support.
An alarming 82 per cent of minimum wage earners are over 20-years-old and 58 per cent hold full-time jobs.
Slightly over half of the working poor are employed by big business and large corporations consisting of more than 100 employees.
The truth is that the entire so-called picture of the minimum wage worker is wrong and a more accurate representation would be of an adult, employed full-time, with children to support on a wage that is not enough to meet the basic needs of one person, let alone multiple people.
Currently, the paltry $10.45 an hour minimum wage for working British Columbians is so low that it cannot even come close to covering the needs of even the most frugal individual.
Instead, a more reasonable living wage would be something akin to $20 per hour, and even then, money would have to be carefully budgeted to make ends meet.
With this reality facing many working British Columbians, it would seem unreasonable for anyone to challenge recent initiatives to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour – an amount still significantly shy of a living wage.
However, leave it to the big businesses and corrupt politicians to take issue with even this modest increase in wages.
Instead of eagerly backing this initiative, Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberal government have done next to nothing to help impoverished British Columbians impoverished.
To justify their agenda — which is clearly to support the interests of big businesses — the BC Liberals have repeatedly claimed that augmenting the minimum wage would be detrimental to the economy.
These claims have little merit, and there is no evidence to suggest that raising the minimum wage would hamper economic growth.
There is significant research to suggest, however, that an increase in the minimum wage would create more incentives for employers to offer better, more stable jobs to B.C. residents, reduce turnover rates and increase employee retention, and boost productivity.
Moreover, with more income, B.C. workers would be able to pay for their basic needs and not rely as heavily on social welfare programs to make ends meet.
This would alleviate some of the burden currently placed on the shoulders of taxpayers and relocate it to the shoulders of the rightful owner — big businesses.
At the same time, with more money poured into the economy, local businesses would benefit from an increased customer base.
In summary, there is no reason not to support raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Instead of fighting this initiative, our government should be supporting it and recognizing that no gainfully-employed individual should be unable to pay for their basic needs.
Jack Trovato was an NDP candidate in the 2015 federal election in the riding of Richmond Centre and is expected to run in the 2017 provincial election in the new Richmond-Queensborough riding
