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July 13, 2012MINIMUM WAGE 2011 Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's (HRSDC) Minimum Wage database provides provincial minimum wage for Canadian adult workers back to 1965. For the period 1997 to 2011, the minimum wage in some provinces nearly doubled; in others the legislative rate increased modestly.
In the Canadian provinces 1997, the average adult minimum hourly wage stood at $5.81 per hour. British Columbia led the way with an average minimum hourly rate of $7.14; Alberta posted a $5.00 per hourly minimum, and Nova Scotia's average annual minimum rate was $5.49 per hour.
The difference between the highest to the lowest average annual rate in 1997 was $2.14 per hour, a 42.8% differential (BC = $7.14; AB = $5.00).
By 2011 the average annual provincial hourly minimum wage rate had increased by 62.8% to $9.46, and by 92.8% in Newfoundland and Labrador to $10.00. While British Columbia led the way in 1997, its minimum hourly wage rate increased only by 20% in the intervening years resulting in a decline to the lowest average annual hourly rate ($8.56).
Over the 1997-2011 period there was a significant improvement in the provincial differential. The difference between the highest and the lowest average annual rate in 2011 was $1.69 per hour, a 19.7% differential (ON = $10.25; BC = $8.56).
Nova Scotia in the meanwhile, has maintained its middle-of-the-road, average minimum hourly wage rate. Over the 1997 to 2011 period the average annual adult hourly rate increased 71.3% to $9.40. (In January 2011 the rate stood at $9.20 and was subsequently increased to $10.00 in October.)
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
Minimum Wage Database