The Alberta government is examining a scaled minimum wage system for the province, according to new comments from Minister of Employment and Immigration Thomas Lukaszuk. 

Jasper, which has a higher percentage of employees earning minimum wage than  typical Albertan towns of a similar size, could be affected more than much of the rest of Alberta should such changes come to pass.

“The simplest idea of a one size fits all minimum wage is not the solution anymore,” said Lukaszuk in Hinton on June 1. He was in town as part of the governments provincial community tour. “The question we need to answer, and I don’t have it yet, is whether having one minimum wage for all is the right answer.”

Lukaszuk was responding to a question about the provinces plans for the minimum wage, which were frozen at $8.80 this year pending a review by a all-party provincial committee.

He asked the crowd rhetorically whether a single mother earning minimum wage should be paid the same amount of money for the same job as a young person who spends his money on booze over the weekend.

Lukaszuk also told a story about how when he went to university, he worked as a server and made much of his money through tips. He wondered whether servers who make tips should be paid a different wage than earners who do not make tips.

Prior to this year, Alberta’s minimum wage had been rising every year since 2007. However, the decision to freeze the wage was based on recent troubles in the Alberta economy.

“For lack of a better term, the economy had tanked, but the minimum wage was going to based on weekly earnings based on last year. That would have placed employers in the position of laying off workers,” said Lukaszuk. He added that the prospect of greater unemployment, led the government to decide that the minimum wage freeze was a good idea.

Furthermore, Luckaszuk dismissed critics who contend that Albertan companies have the highest average weekly earnings in all of Canada. He said those numbers were inflated by the many oil companies in Alberta, and once those companies are taken out of the equation, the earnings fall dramatically.

Kevin Henderson, the assistant general manager for Mountain Park Lodges, said that a blanket raise in the minimum wage in Alberta would definitely affect the way his company runs its hotels in Jasper. He said only 10 to 15 per cent of the people that MPL employs are on minimum wage (most of them are servers). However, the raise in the minimum wage would likely push up the wages of people who are working in the $10 to $12 an hour range.

“There’s a ripple effect that it would have that would make us have to look at a whole number of ways that we run our business,” said Henderson. He said  running hotels has been tougher in recent years and an across the board rise in wages for his workers would likely make things even tougher. He said the minimum wage freeze this year was a good thing for MPL and hotels in Jasper.

He said he thought the minister’s comments were extremely interesting and worth exploring, although he wondered if a scaled minimum wage system would work in practice. 

He was also open to the idea of paying servers a distinct minimum wage, due to the fact that servers get tips. Still, even that system has its problems.

“The problem with it is who gets tips and who doesn’t get them,” said Henderson.

Carrie Carlowich, a program co-ordinator at the Jasper Employment Centre, said that Jasper’s workforce had more minimum wage workers than places like Hinton or Edson.

Minimum wages in the country range from $8 an hour in British Columbia to $10.25 in Ontario. Only three other provinces: P.E.I., New Brunswick (which is rising to $9 in September) and B.C. pay less than Alberta. All of the territories are also higher.

Ontario pays liquor servers $8.90 per hour and summer workers under the age of 18 $9.60. Quebec pays $8.25 to workers who receive tips.

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) has criticized in the minimum wage freeze in Alberta. Its executive director, Gil McGowan, has argued that most minimum-wage earners are employed by large restaurant chains and not necessarily by small businesses.

“The province is handing more money to fast-food restaurants and coffee shops by freezing the minimum wage,” said McGowan.