Sky is the limit for how much gov’t can take out of our pockets

By Letter to the Editor on October 31, 2018.

Re: “Wage hike hasn’t caused sky to fall,” Oct. 24

My learned friend Bruce Symington says wage hikes haven’t caused the sky to fall.

Well, that depends on whose sky he is speaking of!

Mathematically speaking, my friend does not acknowledge the resulting increases in income taxes, EI and CPP contributions to not just the employee but the employer whose portion of EI and CPP also goes up! If the economy benefits to the tune of $8-9 million, both provincial and federal governments must be raking in millions upon millions in additional tax revenue! The current provincial government has been good at not disclosing the real and only reason for hiking the minimum wage was not to better the life of the average working man or woman but rather to increase tax revenue for the government.

Coupled with the increase in Alberta income taxes the effect of the minimum wage hikes is not yet really known. According to many “small business” owners, it is having an effect on their employer tax burden which has increased as a result and those small businesses still under customer contract(s) that do not expire until well after the wage increase, those businesses must “eat” the additional wages and employer burden until their contract(s) expires and then enter into not-too-pleasant negotiations for an increase in contract prices with customers who do not fully grasp that their contractor’s costs in wages and benefits have risen substantially; this is putting a hardship on businesses who may have to delay hiring or worst yet, cut the hours of current employees (some retail employers have done just that — so their employees’ sky just might be falling)!

The rise in Alberta income tax rates, not to mention the outrageous carbon tax that is more than the cost of a gigajoule of natural gas (126 per cent of the cost of the gas in carbon tax and then that is subject to the GST) coupled with outrageous utilities fees which also exceed the actual cost of the commodity by anywhere from 87 per cent to 131 per cent make life hard on even those so called lucky $15 per hour workers!

The true result of the hike in minimum wage has had one positive effect on the “sky” over our governments; it proves that for them that the sky is the limit on how much they can take out of our pockets!

Ron No‘l

Medicine Hat

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