BC Minimum Wage Increase
By: Michelle QuinnThis post was co-authored by Michelle Quinn and Sonia Khan, summer student.
The BC Government has increased the province’s minimum wage from $14.60 up to $15.20 per hour. This increase is part of a recent trend to provide security to BC’s lowest earners. The minimum wage applies to all workers of any age, with no separate minimum applying to minors.
Minimum wage applies regardless of how employees are paid – hourly, salary, commission or on an incentive basis. If an employee’s wage is below minimum wage for the hours they worked, the employer must top up their payment so that it’s equal to minimum wage.
The dates below show the gradual upward shift:
- September 15, 2017 – $11.35 per hour
- June 1, 2018 – $12.65 per hour
- June 1, 2019 – $13.85 per hour
- June 1, 2020 – $14.60 per hour
- June 1, 2021 – $15.20 per hour
Beginning next year, the province’s minimum wage will be tied to inflation.
It is important to note that Part 1, Section 4 of the Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) does not allow for the minimum wage to be waived as part of an employment agreement. Agreed employment conditions that do not meet the minimum standards of the ESA, will be deemed to be of no effect. Certain employees are exempt from the ESA and are not entitled to minimum wage.
Liquor Servers
This wage increase also includes liquor servers who will now earn the general minimum wage. Before this increase, liquor servers earned a lesser minimum wage than the rest of the province at $13.95 per hour.
Part 4, Section 18.1 (1) of the Employment Standards Regulations defines a liquor server as an employee:
(a) whose primary duties are a server of food or drink or both, and(b) who as a regular part of the employee’s employment, serves liquor directly to customers, guests, members or patrons in premises for which a licence to sell liquor under the Liquor Control and Licensing Act.
If an employee falls under the above definition, you may need to review and amend applicable employment contracts to reflect the change.
If you need advice on employee matters and the ESA please contact any member of our Employment and Human Rights Group.
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Employers Beware – if you are contemplating retracting an offer of employment from a potential candidate you might want to think again in light of the recent B.C. court decision of Buchanan v. Introjunction Ltd., 2017 BCSC 1002. In this case, the B.C. Supreme Court found that the plaintiff employee was wrongfully dismissed when his employment was terminated shortly after his contract of employment with the defendant employer was executed but before he actually started work. The Court awarded him 6 weeks’ severance pay.
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We continue to receive many questions from employers and employees about terminations and lay-offs, so in this blog post we provide an overview of the key notice provisions in the BC Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) that may assist you during these uncertain times. The minimum notice periods identified in the ESA may be in the form of working notice or payment in lieu of notice. In particular, we take a look at rarely used section 65(1)(d) of the ESA which states that an employer is not required to provide notice of termination or pay in lieu of notice to its employees if it can prove that COVID-19 has been an “unforeseen circumstance” that has made continuing the employment contract “impossible”.
