{"id":181618,"date":"2025-10-01T03:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/181618\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T03:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:44:13","slug":"alberta-premier-defends-decision-not-to-increase-provinces-minimum-wage-set-to-be-lowest-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/181618\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta premier defends decision not to increase province\u2019s minimum wage, set to be lowest in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is defending her province\u2019s minimum wage as it is once again set to become the lowest in Canada.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Minimum wage hikes will kick in Wednesday in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, leaving Alberta the lowest at $15 an hour.<\/p>\n

But Smith says Alberta has offsetting benefits, such as no provincial sales tax, and a boost in minimum wage would not help the province deal with a high youth unemployment rate.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIn 2018, Alberta had the highest minimum wage in Canada, but starting Oct. 1, it will have the lowest minimum wage in the country.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s current rate of $15 an hour was set in 2018 by then-premier Rachel Notley\u2019s NDP government, making it, at the time, the highest minimum wage in Canada.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

But Alberta has not adjusted the rate since, while other provinces have boosted theirs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

A separate minimum wage for students under 18 in Alberta has been set at $13 an hour since 2019.<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s Opposition NDP has called on Smith\u2019s United Conservative Party government to boost the wage and index it to inflation.<\/p>\n

Smith told a news conference in Calgary the best path forward is the incentive programs currently being rolled out for employers to get more young people working.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to see if we can start seeing those numbers go down and then we can have further conversations,\u201d Smith said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t want to put any more barriers in place to employers hiring young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other provinces hiking their wages Wednesday have tied their increases to Canada\u2019s steadily growing consumer price index, which is an indicator of inflation.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, Ontario\u2019s minimum wage will be $17.60 per hour, Prince Edward Island\u2019s is $16.50 an hour, Nova Scotia\u2019s is $16.50 per hour, Manitoba\u2019s is $16 per hour and Saskatchewan\u2019s is $15.35 an hour.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:06
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta NDP calls on province to increase minimum wage\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is defending her province\u2019s minimum wage as it is once again set to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[91848,45,49,48,46,65836,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-181618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alberta-minimum-wage","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-minimum-wage","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}