EDMONTON—More than 300,000 Albertans can expect a raise on Oct. 1 when the province hikes the minimum wage rate from $13.60 an hour to $15.

It’s the third and final step of the provincial government’s plan to lift Alberta’s minimum wage from $10.20 in 2015, when it had one of the lowest rates in the country.

Deron Bilous, Alberta’s minister of economic development and trade, said the step up was timely and a “positive step forward” given the cost of living in the province.

“We felt that people who are struggling, who are working two full-time jobs at minimum wage, should not have to stop at a food bank on their way home because they can’t afford their bills and groceries,” Bilous told StarMetro. “We want people to be able to afford to live.”

Public Interest Alberta crunched the numbers from Statistics Canada’s labour force survey, and looked at the average number of Albertans employed for the year up to June.

Of the 1.9 million working Albertans, more than 300,000 stand to benefit from the minimum wage increase.

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However, some labour advocates question whether the increase is enough to give Alberta’s working poor a chance. According to the Edmonton Social Planning Council, the living wage for Alberta increased by 17 cents in June, to $16.48 an hour — the minimum required to support a family of four.

Joel French, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, Joel French, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, said the organization released the numbers to show that the province is stepping in the right direction. Low-wage workers in the province will have more to spend on the necessities, but the increase is still short for some families trying to earn a living wage, he said.

“We need to, I think, have a shift in mindset in the way we operate our economy,” French said. “It’s no longer acceptable for anybody to be paying poverty-level wages to workers.”

However, French acknowledged that while the raise is good news for some employees, business owners might be less likely to see the increase in a positive light.

Richard Truscott, the Alberta and British Columbia vice-president for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said that raising the floor on wages — particularly at the rate Alberta has been going — won’t necessarily put more money in the pockets of low-wage workers.

“We must not forget that small businesses operate in highly competitive markets on very thin margins, and any time governments move to introduce big, new costs — like raising the minimum wage up to $15 — there’s going to be adjustments,” Truscott said.

His concern is that business owners would have to tighten their belts by offering less hours, benefits, and entry-level positions to new and young Albertans breaking into the workforce.

Instead of changing minimum wage policy, he suggested the government could do more to offer tax relief and improve training opportunities so that workers feeling stuck in entry-level and low-paying jobs can climb up.

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French wasn’t opposed to more training opportunities for workers, but said it’s not a substitute for a living wage, and that a solution to helping workers make a living wage will require a multi-pronged approach. There’s more room for improvement at the policy level, he agreed, but not just from the province.

“In the larger cities, and the higher cost of living centres … I think we need the municipal governments to step up and start looking at living wage policies for their employees.”

With files from Claire Theobald

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