One more reason NOT to move to Alberta

Every time I talk to my mom, she tells me that I need to get the fuck out of the maritimes (my words, not hers). "You could stay with one of your cousins in Toronto while you look for work, or go to Calgary. I heard there's lots of jobs out there that they can't fill". My argument against the move to Calgary (besides the housing shortage that dwarfs even Fredericton's) is that Alberta has a bizarre habit of spawning nearly all of Canada's most conservative politicians... Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Deborah Grey, Stephen Harper... they all came from oil-producin', beef-eatin' Alberta. Plus, the guy running the place likes to get drunk and yell at homeless people. It's the Texas of Canada. I'd be afraid of getting lynched, really.

I wasn't aware, however, that Alberta is also home to the lowest minimum wage in Canada at a dismal $5.90/hr. Damn, I thought for sure that it would be one of the Atlantic Provinces, what with our culture of defeatism and the poverty and what not.

Let's do some math: If you work full time for minimum wage in Alberta (and let's just assume that you're lucky enough to work at a job where you get 40 hours each and every week), you would make $236 each and every week. That's before taxes, of course. So probably closer to $200 a week, which works out to $10,400 a year. Yeah, that's reasonable. It beats the heck out of living on welfare I suppose, but if you've got a kid or two, or (like me) have an obscene amount of student debt to pay off, it's just. not. enough.

Mimimum wage is supposed to increase accordingly based on inflation rates. One of the factors that economists use to calculate inflation is the retail costs of certain things, like food, gasoline, and cigarettes. I've always thought that a fair minimum wage is equal to the price of one pack of brand-name cigarettes. Of course, by this standard, the minimum wage in New Brunswick should be hovering around $10/hr, and that would be downright crazy.