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Annual Adjustment of Minimum Wage - Act Part 3, Section 16.2

Last updated on April 22, 2024

Contents:

Summary
Text of Legislation
Policy Interpretation
Related Information

Summary

This section sets out the minimum wage that employers must pay their employees.

Text of Legislation

16.2. (1) In this section, "consumer price index" means the annual average All-items Consumer Price Index for British Columbia, as published by Statistics Canada under the authority of the Statistics Act (Canada).

(2) Subject to this section, every year on June 1, beginning on June 1, 2024,

(a) the minimum wage referred to in section 16.1 (1) is adjusted in accordance with the formula set out in subsection (4) of this section, and

(b) the adjusted minimum wage is rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.05 or, if the adjusted minimum wage is equidistant from 2 consecutive multiples, to the higher multiple.

(3) Subject to this section and the regulations, every year on June 1, beginning on June 1, 2024,

(a) a minimum wage referred to in section 16.1 (2) is adjusted in accordance with the formula set out in subsection (4) of this section, and

(b) the adjusted minimum wage is rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.01 or, if the adjusted minimum wage is equidistant from 2 consecutive multiples, to the higher multiple.

(4) The following formula applies for the purposes of subsections (2) (a) and (3) (a):

adjusted minimum wage = previous minimum wage × Index A / Index B

where

 
adjusted minimum wage is, subject to subsection (2) (b) or (3) (b), the new minimum wage;
previous minimum wage is the minimum wage that applied immediately before the adjustment under this section;
Index A is the consumer price index for the immediately preceding calendar year;
Index B is the consumer price index for the calendar year immediately preceding the calendar year referred to in the description of Index A.

(5) Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply to a minimum wage referred to in section 16.1 (1) or (2), as the case may be, in relation to a calendar year if the adjustment to the minimum wage under this section in that calendar year would result in a decrease in the minimum wage.

(6) The minister must publish the minimum wages referred to in section 16.1, as adjusted under this section, on a publicly accessible website.

Policy Interpretation

Employees covered by a collective agreement

Section 3 provides that parties to a collective agreement may not negotiate terms and conditions that do not meet or exceed the standards set out in section 16.2. Where there is a collective agreement, the enforcement of matters relating to section 16.2 is through the grievance procedure, not through the enforcement provisions of the Act.

Related Information

Related sections of the Act or Regulation

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