Get the Top, Local stories delivered to your inbox! Click here to join the daily Vernon Matters newsletter.
Higher wages are coming for B.C.'s liquor servers. (Dreamstime ID 164950505)
June 1 start

Higher wages coming for B.C.’s liquor servers

Apr 9, 2021 | 12:30 PM

B.C. liquor servers will get a pay boost on June 1, 2021, as the lower liquor server minimum wage is replaced with the general minimum wage of $15.20 an hour.

Labour Minister Harry Baines says the change delivers on a commitment made in 2018 to bring an end to the alternative liquor server minimum wage in B.C. Eighty-per-cent of liquor servers are women.

“I’m proud to put an end to the discriminatory minimum wage for B.C. liquor servers, which disproportionally affects women,” Bains said. “Many of these low-income workers are the most vulnerable in workplaces, including young women as liquor servers and minorities in low-wage jobs.”

June 1 will also see the start of a $15.20 an hour minimum wage, up 60 cents.

The minimum wage rates for live-in camp leaders and resident caretakers are also increasing on that day.

Minimum wage increase summaries:

– general minimum wage increases to $15.20 an hour from $14.60 an hour;

– liquor server minimum wage of $13.95 an hour is being replaced with the general minimum wage of $15.20 an hour;

– live-in camp leader minimum wage, per day, increases to $121.65 from $116.86; and

– resident caretaker minimum wage, per month, increases to $912.28, plus $36.56 per suite for those who manage nine to 60 residential suites and to $3,107.42 for 61 or more suites.

Future increases to the minimum wage, starting in 2022, will be based on the rate of inflation.

The province says over 13 per cent of all workers in B.C. earn less than $15 an hour.

B.C. minimum wage increases:

  • September 15, 2017 – $11.35 per hour
  • June 1, 2018 – $12.65 per hour
  • June 1, 2019 – $13.85 per hour
  • June 1, 2020 – $14.60 per hour
  • June 1, 2021 – $15.20 per hour
View Comments