With the minimum wage set to rise from $10.10 per hour to $11.20 per hour on October 1, 2015, I thought this article was an interesting perspective on how things have changed over the years. Alberta established a Minimum Wage Board in 1922, after several other provinces, but was the first to enact minimum wage legislation, and the first to enact a fixed statutory minimum for men and women. Note that the wages given in the article are per week! Also worth noting is that only certain places in the province were bound by the new law, and only for specified occupations. I didn’t find numbers for the early years, but by comparison, in 1965 the minimum wage was $1.00 per hour for urban areas, and $0.95 for non-urban.
Researched & written by Kathryn Auger
