BC’s minimum wage is in for its annual increase on Saturday (June 1).
The minimum wage across BC will jump from $16.75 an hour to $17.40 – nearly $4 higher than the $13.85 minimum wage in 2019.
Servers’ minimum wage will also increase from $16.75 to $17.40, however, that wage is $5 higher than the $12.70 per hour mark in 2019.
“That equates to a 4% increase to our wage bills, which accounts for a significant amount of a restaurant’s costs – typically 30% to 35% of overall costs go to labour,” Eoin Foley, the President of Downtown PG and the owner of Nancy O’s and Betulla Burning, told My PG Now.
“Not to say our hard working employees don’t deserve a bump, it is important to realize everyone’s costs are going up,” he added. “I’d rather see the government force us to put more money in workers’ pockets than take it and spend it on something else.”
Foley said since the pandemic, “so many new rules have come in; minimum wage increases, extra fees, health care taxes. All these little things make a big difference to small business every time.”
Building on that point, he said small businesses are always hit harder by these fees than chains.
“It hurts small businesses more. When they have to close, those really big conglomerates and chains are the ones that benefit.”
“We could be approaching a tipping point,” he continued. “It has been happening slowly, hopefully we don’t get to that day where it is nearly impossible to operate a small business. They are the heart of a community, most businesses are small businesses.”
After 44 years in business, D’Lanos family restaurant in Prince George is closing after 44 years.
He cited the current state of the grocery sector as an example of somewhere he does not want to see local restaurants and small businesses go.
“In these conversations about affordability and inflation, these massive companies that control so much are the ones that benefit at the end of the day.”
In January, a provincial campaign to save BC’s restaurants was launched by the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, calling on the government to help the struggling sector.
To his knowledge, Foley said no such support is in the works.
“Any help we can get we will take. Not just restaurants, a lot of small businesses have really struggled in recent times.”
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