On April 1, 2008, Manitoba's minimum wage will increase to $8.50/hour -- a fifty cent increase from the current rate putting our province among the highest minimum wage rates in the country. But while the government increases the minimum wage each year and boasts of its effort to help low income earners, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg tells us there are 51,000 children living in poverty and the province isn't doing enough to raise their living standards.

In truth, minimum wage increases hurt the very people they're intended to help first by increasing the price of their labour making their ability to earn a living more difficult and second, by taxing their gains away at the margin.

Fiddling around with the minimum wage doesn't add up to a pile of beans for the average low-income employee. The impact of provincial bracket creep (a policy preventing personal exemptions and income tax brackets from keeping pace with inflation) has already eroded past increases.

If the provincial government were serious about helping the working poor, meaningful tax reform would be on the agenda, not miniscule minimum wage hikes that don't even pay for an extra cup of coffee a day.

The province should end the practice of increasing the rate annually and instead, in the upcoming budget, root out bracket creep and match what the federal government has announced raising the basic personal exemption (BPE).

The feds increased the BPE to $9,600, retroactive to January 1, 2007 - set to increase to $10,100 by 2009. In Manitoba, the BPE will be $8,034 once we ring in the New Year. Alberta boasts a whopping $15,435 BPE, while Saskatchewan's is just shy of $8,800.

Manitoba's government should gradually raise the BPE and the spousal exemption to $15,000, which is roughly the equivalent to a minimum wage job. Adopting this strategy as policy will not only stop punishing business owners (read: job creators), but it could also placate social activists who are calling for a $10.65 minimum wage.

There also needs to be a fundamental shift in mentality when it comes to job creation in the province -- raising the minimum wage doesn't help create opportunity in Manitoba, and in fact could very well result in fewer jobs.

A minimum wage job is a starting point, not a career destination. Most minimum wage earners don't earn that wage for long, and if they do, they have the option of shopping around for a better paying job. That said, there are those in society who find themselves in the position of holding a part-time or low paying job, struggling to make ends meet. We are not going to alleviate the hardships of those people with the heavy hand of government regulation, or by forcing businesses to pay their employees more.

If minimum wage laws are so good at raising living standards why stop at $8.50 Why not make the minimum wage $10 an hour or even $20 The fact is, central planning does not work. Living standards are raised when people are free to look after their own affairs unencumbered by government busybodies and the high taxes which keep them employed at the expense of everyone else -- low income earners bear this price more than any other.