Courtesy: Colton Mckee

By Jessie Weisner

MINIMUM WAGE PANEL

Medicine Hat woman recommended for provincial minimum wage panel

Sep 5, 2019 | 4:18 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A local woman is being recommended for a government panel assessing Alberta’s minimum wage for servers.

NDP Labour Critic Christina Gray suggested seven people be added to the panel that was announced in August.

With more than 12 years of restaurant experience, many spent in Medicine Hat, Elizabeth Thomson believes her perspective should be added to the conversation.

“I definitely think there’s a lack of diverse server perspectives. They do have three servers on the panel and I’m not saying their opinions don’t matter, but it’s that two of them are from one restaurant and all three of them come from big city’s, from high end restaurants,” she says. “I mean that’s not going to express the experience of a server working at Perkins.”

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Thomson says servers working in small towns have unique challenges. They often get lower tips because of lower bill averages and have days where they have no tables.

She says servers in small towns would feel the hit of decreased minimum wage much harder, so their perspective should be included.

“Coming from Medicine Hat we always feel like we’re a little forgotten and this panel kind of shows that. Not just for servers, but for anyone working in industry. It’s different in Medicine Hat than it is in Calgary and Edmonton and this panel needs to include those perspectives,” she says.

The current nine person panel is made up of three servers, two business owners, two businessmen and two economists.

Thomson says she’s unsure if she’ll be added to the panel, but she has spoken to MLA Drew Barnes about being considered.

“I did speak to MLA Barnes and ask him to reach out to Minister Copping to see if I could be added to the panel, to see if there’s any leniency in adding people to the panel,” she says. “Across party lines I think it’s important for diversity of opinion to be included and hopefully they’ll include us and take the opportunity to accept the diversity of voices rather than a small city based perspective.”

Regardless of if she ends up on the panel or not, Thomson says she hopes the panel inspires a bigger conversation about the challenges of the restaurant industry.

“I’m hoping that in the next few months it’s going to open a discussion about fair wages and fair voice. Servers in the restaurant industry, not just servers, everyone in the restaurant industry works precariously. We don’t know how long our shifts are going to be, we don’t know when we’re going to work, we don’t have contracts usually. So opening up that discussion to get more people engaged in talking about that it’s important for all workers to have a fair chance and a fair wage,” she says.

The panels report will be presented to the provincial government in January 2020.