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Minimum Wage campaign targets minimum wage employer MLA Pat Bell
April 16, 2009
The B.C. Federation of Labour took its $10 Now Campaign to one of Liberal Cabinet Minister Pat Bell's Wendy's restaurants in Prince George today.
Under the BC Liberal government, in which Bell has served as a senior Cabinet Minister, the provincial minimum wage has been frozen at $8 an hour since 2001. During this time Bell voted himself a 29 percent salary increase which took his MLA salary to $98,000.
BC's minimum wage was the highest in Canada when Pat Bell was first elected in 2001. Frozen for eight years, it is now the lowest in the country.
"With the massive salary increase and platinum pension he voted himself, as well as the frozen minimum wage and so-called ‘training wage' he pays his workers, this government has been very good for Pat Bell," says Federation President, Jim Sinclair. "This government certainly hasn't been as good for the people who work in Pat Bell's restaurants or the hundreds of thousands of people who earn less than $10 an hour."
Approximately 63,000 people in BC earn the $8 an hour minimum wage while more than 293,000 earn less than $10 an hour. More than 60 percent of these workers are women. More than two-thirds of these workers are 20 years or older.
The Federation has received support for a $10 an hour minimum wage from more than 35 City Councils across the province, including Prince George, and is taking its appeal to Vancouver City Council in the coming weeks. It has already been endorsed by the Union of BC Municipalities.
"Workers at Wendy's can't vote themselves a salary increase like Pat Bell did, but on May 12 they can replace him with an MLA who represents all constituents," says Sinclair.
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For more information: Evan Stewart, Director of Communications (604) 430-1421.
