Ontario and Alberta are both moving to a $15 per hour minimum wage. The potential Green-NDP government in British Columbia has plans to do the same. Such increases tend to churn up misguided discussions on social media of the possible economic impact on employment, wages and consumer prices.

"The backlash is all generated by employers," said Mark Thompson, professor emeritus of industrial relations at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia who chaired a commission on employment standards in the '90s.

"When the minimum wage goes up here in British Columbia, the restaurant industry and the small business people are going to trot someone out who says they can't make it under these conditions. But you don't hear about the ones that are making it under the minimum wage."

Data shows it does have an effect on one demographic: young people.

A 10-per-cent increase in the minimum wage creates a three- to six-per-cent decrease in youth employment, according to Morley Gunderson, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Toronto.

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