VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark has rejected the idea of raising B.C.’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, but says she is exploring the idea of planned, predictable, rate hikes.

Clark said she’s not willing to support a request by the B.C. Federation of Labour to increase the minimum wage from its current rate of $10.25 an hour to $15.

“The economy is still quite fragile and we need to make sure we’re supporting small businesses, which are huge job creators,” Clark said. “What I have promised to do is find a predictable way for the minimum wage to go up.

“And small and medium sized businesses have said that’s what they would like too. “Because they know it’s going to go up, but they want to know it’s going to go up in a predictable way so they can plan for it a head of time.”

B.C.’s minimum wage had stagnated for almost 10 years until 2011 when Clark became premier. She’s raised it three times since, most recently to the current $10.25 in 2012.

There are 110,400 people earning the minimum wage in B.C., which is 5.9% of all workers in the province. About 52 per cent of the minimum wage workers live with their parents, and most of those are attending school, according to government statistics.

But it’s not fair to characterize minimum wage earners as teenagers with their first jobs looking for pocket money, said Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, who was at the legislature this week advocating the $15 wage.

“Ten thousand minimum wage workers are older than 55, they are mothers, fathers, seniors, students, people trying to get by and support their families,” said Lanzinger.

She called it “shameful” that a province as wealthy as B.C. can’t set a minimum wage at a rate that lets a full-time worker rise above the poverty line.

Lanzinger argued that hiking the wage would give more money to thousands of workers who would in turn spend it in shops and businesses and boost the provincial economy.

Jobs Minister Shirley Bond has been tasked with setting a formula for predictable raises to the minimum wage.

“One of the things I’ve done is looked across the country and in fact we’re one of, if not the only, jurisdiction that does not have a systemic, predictable increase to the minimum wage,” said Bond.

Some provinces, such as Alberta, use a formula that takes into account the rate of inflation and average earnings for Alberta residents to increase the amount annually.

Bond said she hopes to settle on B.C. formula “as soon as possible” and well before the end of this year.

The overall number of people on minimum wage continues to drop, said Bond.

As B.C. debates the issue, the Washington state legislature’s house of representatives voted this week to raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour over the next four years.

In the United States, cities, states and the federal government can all set minimum wages. In Canada, the rate is set by the provinces.

rshaw@vancouversun.com