By Gil McGowan, AFL Staff

EDMONTON -- Alberta's minimum wage is "woefully inadequate" and should be raised immediately, says a report released a month and a half ago by the Alberta Federation of Labour.

The report shows that once inflation is taken into account, the real value of the minimum wage in Alberta has dropped by nearly 40 per cent over the past 20 years. This situation, argues the AFL, is unacceptable.

"There is a firm belief among Albertans that any individual who works full-time at a job should not have to live in poverty," reads the report. "This is a social principle that virtually all Canadians endorse."

A copy of the AFL report was delivered to Labour Minister Murray Smith in April. In May, AFL president Audrey Comrack formally presented the report to a government committee that is reviewing Alberta's minimum wage and other work-related regulations.

"What we're saying with this report is that the minimum wage in this province is far too low," said AFL president Audrey Cormack. "We're also saying that the laws protecting the rights of Albertans in the workplace are inadequate."

Alberta's minimum wage -- $5 per hour for adults and $4.50 per hour for young workers under the age of 18 – is the lowest in the country. And it hasn't been increased since 1992.

Cormack pointed out that Alberta's minimum wage used to be much more generous than it is today. In 1977, the minimum wage in the province was $3 per hour – that's the equivalent of about $8 an hour in 1998.

"We could afford it then, there is no reason why we can't afford it now."

In the report, the AFL called on the government to immediately increase the minimum wage to $7.85 per hour. That's the amount that a single person working 40 hours a week would need to live above the poverty line.

"The bottom line is that Alberta's current minimum wage is a poverty wage and that's no longer acceptable," said Cormack. While focusing on the issue of the minimum wage, the AFL report also criticizes government-approved "exemptions" which allow many Alberta employers to ignore basic provisions of the Employment Standards Code. As a result of these exemptions, thousands of working Albertans are denied basic workplace rights related to things like vacations, overtime and hours of work.

The AFL report concludes with a call for a minimum wage that would allow all working Albertans to live above the poverty line. It also calls for a full, public review of the entire Employment Standards Code.

"The current review is too limited in scope and it hasn't provided a real forum for ordinary working people," says Cormack. "Albertans deserve better."