BC increasing minimum wage to $17.40 an hour

The province’s general minimum wage is increasing on Saturday.

As of June 1, the minimum wage will increase from $16.75 to $17.40 an hour.

That nearly 4% increase applies to rates for resident caretakers, live-in home-support workers and live-in camp leaders, a news release from the province says.

According to the release, the increase will apply to about 240,000 workers who are earning the current minimum wage.

When the Ministry of Labour announced the increase in February, they said the increase was “consistent with BC’s average rate of inflation last year.”

“BC has gone from having one of the lowest minimum wages in the country to the highest of all the provinces,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour, in February.

According to the news release issued on Tuesday, the government amended the Employment Standards Act so that future increases to the minimum wage will happen automatically, based on the previous year’s average inflation rate.