Premier Christy Clark played breakfast server at a Vancouver diner Saturday, the day before the province ushers in the first of three incremental increases to the minimum wage.
Donning a red apron, Clark -- who has some experience in the service industry -- waited on tables at the Sunshine Diner on West Broadway, where she defended her decision to increase B.C.'s minimum wage for the first time in a decade.
Critics, including the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, have blasted the move, claiming it will result in cut back hours and job losses in the province.
"There's no question a minimum wage raise has some impacts," Clark said. "It's an incremental increase over a year, so businesses have time to predict and plan for it."
While B.C.'s minimum wage will eventually be the second-highest in Canada, on May 1 it will increase by only 50 cents for liquor servers and 75 cents for everyone else.
It will rise again in November followed by a final increase in May 2012, at which time liquor servers will receive $9 and the rest of the province's lowest-paid workers will receive $10.25.
The province says liquor servers' tips account for the lower wage.
"I just think it's a basic matter of fairness. We live in one of the most expensive places in North America," Clark said.
B.C.'s $6 training wage will be eliminated Sunday as well, and employees will be entitled to earn the higher minimum wage regardless of how long they've been in the labour force.
Niels Veldhuis, senior economist at the Fraser Institute, predicts it will result in thousands of job losses, and that young people will be hurt most.
"The reality is, when you increase the minimum wage you take away opportunities for those young workers, take away their chance to get into the labour force, get their first job and move up the income ladder," Veldhuis said.
But Clark isn't buying it.
"You know what? Sometimes wages have to go up," she said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
