The Alberta government has rejected a report by a panel it appointed to study the effects of a $15 minimum wage and a possible lower wage for tipped servers.
The panel, chaired by Joseph Marchand, an economist at the University of Alberta, was appointed in August 2019 by Jason Copping, who was Alberta’s minister of labor at the time.
The panel submitted its report in February 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the document was never published.
“Our government has received and reviewed the work of the expert panel on the minimum wage. Due to the economic effects of COVID, the changing labor market and inflation, much of the report is no longer relevant,” Roy Dallman, press secretary to Labor Minister Casey Maddow, told CBC News in an email.
Alberta Labor has no plans to release the report and the provincial government will maintain the $15 minimum wage, Dallman said.
The panel — which cost the provincial government about $24,492 — was a reaction to the former NDP government’s decision to raise the minimum wage in October 2019.
Groups representing restaurants and small businesses criticized the government at the time, suggesting it was moving too quickly and the initiative would cost jobs.
The United Conservative Party promised in its 2019 election platform that it would form an expert panel on the minimum wage if voted into power.
The panel will have two tasks: examine the potential effect of the wage increase on the labor market and determine whether food and alcohol distributors would make more money in tips if they were paid a lower hourly rate.
Alberta had a lower minimum wage for servers until the former NDP government abolished it in 2016.
It is not known whether the report of the expert commission recommends the restoration of the lower wage.
The panel included Mark von Schellwitz, vice-president of Restaurants Canada, an organization that has advocated for lowering the server minimum wage.
Von Schellwitz told CBC News he could not say what the panel recommended because he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
However, he said the lower wages allow restaurant owners to afford to give servers more hours, which allows those employees the opportunity to earn more tips.
Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the Alberta government should make the panel’s report publicly available.
“Albertans have a right to see the report. They paid for it,” she said, adding that the recommendations could provide insight into what the UCP government might try to implement if the party wins the provincial election next year.
The government introduced a $13 youth minimum wage in June 2019 because it believed higher wages were reducing youth employment levels.
The lower rate had no effect on how many young people got jobs, Notley said.
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