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So does the conclusion that minimum wage hikes are an effective means of increasing wages with relatively minor (if any) downsides fit the observed results? For the answer, let’s look to Alberta, which shifted from the lowest minimum wage in Canada to the highest in a series of increases starting in 2015.

Like Saskatchewan, Alberta is facing a resource price crash which has affected core industries. But while both Saskatchewan and its lowest-paid workers are still stuck in a rut, Alberta has been able to get back on track.

While implementing its minimum wage increases, Alberta has seen its total employment jump back to a level last seen before the oil slump, while also enjoying far more economic growth in 2017 than any other province.

In contrast, Saskatchewan is facing year-to-year job losses. And the most the Saskatchewan Party can point to as a reward for keeping wages down is the projection that our total growth for a two- or three-year period might eventually match Alberta’s 2017 renaissance.

What’s more, even the service industries which typically raise the greatest outcry about fair wages have seen their sales and employment levels increase in Alberta.

And the gap between doomsayers’ claims about an increased minimum wage and the real effects brings us to the only part of the response to a minimum wage actually worth worrying about: The few employers who are so callous as to convert their rhetoric into collective punishment against workers.