By now, most people have heard the news about Alberta’s minimum wage. After years of foot dragging, the Klein government has finally agreed to boost the amount of money earned by Alberta’s lowest-paid workers.

Over the next 14 months, the minimum wage in Alberta will be increased in stages from its current level of $5 an hour to $5.90 an hour. In the process we will go from having the lowest minimum wage in the country to the fourth highest.

In a general sense, this is good news. There is absolutely no doubt that an extra ninety cents per hour will help thousands of Albertans. It won’t allow minimum wage earners to go on a spending spree – but it will make it at least a little easier for them to afford the basic necessities of life.

The government’s recent decision on the minimum wage is also positive because it gets rid of the differential wage for young workers. Albertans under 18 will now get the same minimum wage as adults – something that they’ve always deserved.

But despite all the positive aspects of the new minimum wage policy, I’m still not ready to applaud the government.

As I see it, there are at least three reasons why Albertans should still be dissatisfied with the government’s performance on this issue.

First, the decision to increase the minimum wage was much too long in coming. For the longest time, members of the Klein government tried to ignore the problem. They claimed that the minimum wage was fair. And they argued that there was no provable link between Alberta’s abysmally low minimum wage and rising rates of poverty in the province.

The government was so deep in denial, in fact, that just six months ago Labour minister Murray Smith suggested that we should eliminate the minimum wage altogether. He said the market would guarantee fair wages. Obviously Mr. Smith never had to work in a low-wage job!

Despite Smith’s no-wage fantasy, the government finally agreed to increase the minimum wage. But they didn’t do it because of any great concern for working people. They did it only after a survey showed that the majority of business people favoured an increase.

That’s the first reason why I’m unimpressed with the government’s decision on minimum wage – because it was long-overdue and because it was only made after the business community gave its okay.

The second reason why I’m only partially satisfied with the government’s decision to increase the minimum wage is because -- even after the increase -- the minimum wage in Alberta is still a poverty wage.

According to Statistics Canada, workers living in major cities like Edmonton or Calgary have to earn about $16,000 a year to keep themselves above the poverty line. As it stands right now, minimum wage earners working 40 hours a week earn only about 65 per cent of the amount.

Once the minimum wage is boosted, low-wage workers in the province will earn more, but it still won’t be enough to pull them out of poverty. Even with the extra 90 cents an hour, minimum wage workers in Alberta will still be earning only about 77 per cent of the income need to stay out of poverty.

The final reason why I’m less than thrilled with the government’s decision on the minimum wage is that it does nothing to protect the minimum wage from inflation.

Over the past 20 years the real value of the minimum wage has been steadily eroded by inflation. In fact, between 1977 and 1997 the real value of the minimum wage in Alberta has dropped by about 40 percent.

Just look at the numbers. In 1977, the minimum wage was $3 an hour. If you adjust for inflation, that $3 wage is equivalent to $8 per hour today. Clearly, even after the increase, Alberta’s current minimum doesn’t even approach the amount that minimum wage workers used to earn in this province.

So, in the end, I’m pleased that the minimum wage in Alberta is going up. But, as is the case with so many things in Alberta these days, the good news is balanced with bad news.

The good news is that minimum wage workers will earn a little more. But the bad news is that it still won’t be enough.

What we really need in Alberta is a minimum wage that keeps people out of poverty. We at the Alberta Federation of Labour would like to see it raised to about $7.85 an hour. This is the amount that a full-time worker needs to earn in order to stay above the poverty line.

In addition to a higher minimum wage, we also need to put in place some kind of mechanism that adjusts the minimum wage upward on a regular basis to compensate for inflation. This is crucial because a wage that keeps people out of poverty today may not be enough to keep them out of poverty in the future.

If these kinds of things aren’t done, in five years we’re going to be right back where we started – we’re going to have a minimum wage that is inadequate to meet the needs of Albertans.

So, in the end, I would like to thank the government for increasing the minimum wage. But I would also like to condemn them for not doing it quickly enough -- and for not doing it right.

For the Labour Show on CJSR, I’m Les Steel in Edmonton.