Everyone has heard of the Alberta Advantage. They must have, the province never stops promoting it. And what makes the Alberta Advantage? Well, according to the government website, one of a list of components is “one of the lowest corporate tax rates in North America.”

And just as the website reports, the corporate tax rate truly is low. At eight percent, it is well under that of the other provinces with the next lowest at 11.5 percent. The income tax rates for middle and high income earners are also low, the lowest income tax bracket extending all the way up to $148,269. The rate is 10 percent. The low bracket for no other province or territory extends beyond $55,867.

Not so generous for low income earners, however. The lowest income tax bracket in Alberta has a rate of 10 percent. In BC and Ontario it’s only five percent. The low income taxpayer in Alberta gets a significantly higher bill than his or her counterpart in our neighbouring province.

And then there’s minimum wage, the country’s attempt to ensure that at least the poor don’t starve. Here Alberta proves to be the cheapskate with the lowest minimum wage in the country, tied with its cheapskate buddy, Saskatchewan. Under the NDP government it was the highest. Alberta’s 15 percent compares to B.C.’s $17.40, Ontario’s $17.20, and the federal $17.30.

Some provinces, needless to say not Alberta, raise their minimum wages automatically with the Consumer Price Index. It is really quite unconscionable not to do so.

Not that the minimum wage allows its recipients to live at a decent standard. For example, Ontario’s Living Wage Network claims that their province’s minimum is $7.85 short of what is required to make ends meet in Toronto, taking into account things like the cost of shelter, food and transportation. In other words, the minimum wage isn’t a living wage, at least in Toronto.

Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade, Matt Jones, attempts to justify the province’s niggardly effort by explaining that “significant changes to the minimum wage could negatively impact small businesses, youth and Albertans seeking their first job or part time employment.”

I have posted previously on how the work of Nobel Prize economist David Card has shown that argument to have little purchase. A recent study in California by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment once again confirmed its lack of merit. California recently raised its minimum wage for larger fast food chains to $20.00 an hour and found no job losses. The only affect was a slight rise in prices. Fast food workers saw their pay rise by 18 percent; the price of a four-dollar hamburger went up 15 cents. Sounds like a fair trade-off to me.

Alberta boasts of its Advantage. It’s time it included everyone.