You want to know why this is the case? Because some jobs quite simply aren't worth the current minimum wage, so why would an employer add more jobs when the minimum wage is paying the employee more than the production of that employee is bringing in? The idea of business is to make a profit. In some industries, paying an employee the current minimum wage doesn't put companies in a good position to even break even just like any regulations cause unemployment to skyrocket.
I think my business would be a good example of that. We would love to hire an extra person as a 'support person' in our daycare center because there are constantly so many new govt regulations adding to our paperwork load, we are having a lot of difficulty balancing that with looking after, you know, THE CHILDREN. However, we cannot afford to hire anyone new at the $9.10/hour minimum wage in Alberta without raising the fees for parents yet again. It's a slippery slope that a lot of small businesses go through. They cannot hire new people because the bar is set too high and paying someone over $9 an hour to clean a few counters and toilets and sign some checklists for 3 hours or so a day is just not going to work for us or our parents.
I just did some quick calculations as an example. The monthly fee at my center is the second lowest in the city, yet even though I get paid more than $5/hr above minimum wage, the daycare fee accounts for 37.6% of my highest possible 'take home' pay after income tax, pension, and employment insurance deductions. Those who make minimum wage can get a subsidy from the govt, but those that make above that will not. That's a hefty sum to pay for one of the cheapest daycares in the region and if we were to hire someone else, I would be paying pretty darn near 40% of my net income to the center before I got to pay for anything else. Who can live on that?
Then if we look at the center, the only income is from the 'service' we provide. That totals $12,000 income per month. That sounds pretty good for a business owned by a woman in her own home. But she has not paid the 4 staff members yet (4 are needed by govt regulations, no less). Before matching for taxes and contributions, she has to pay out an average of $8600 per month to wages alone. This is for people who have been employed there for 23, 17, 13, and 7 years respectively. The center actually pays between $1.40 and $2.50/hour above minimum wage from it's own 'profit'. We get mandated govt wage enhancement to make up the rest of our pay (hence why she is paying me $2 above min wage herself, but I actually make $5 an hour above it - clear as mud?). Anyhow, my point is that with wages alone, wages barely above minimum wage, for very long term staff, 72% of each month's income goes to wages- BEFORE adding in what comes out for matching income tax EI and CP, and before paying vacation pay. We do not have a health care plan or anything else - the only deductions are the required labour law amounts. So how on earth can this small business possibly hire even one more minimum wage staff member? Hiring just one more person for only 3 hours a day at minimum wage would eat up almost 20% of what was left of her 'profits'. Profits before paying any bills the center incurs (utilities, groceries, etc). It is ridiculous.
Parents cannot afford to pay more than they already do, and centers cannot hire more staff at these rising minimum wage amounts without charging the parents more. Insert 'consumers' 'employers' and 'products or services' into this story instead and I believe it is much the same for any small business. I can't think of another way to explain it other than my own personal experience. I live in a country where the standard of living is unbelievably high compared to many places in the US, including large cities, and raising minimum wage repeatedly across the provinces has not done a thing for anybody, not that I have seen. If you get 50 cents more per hour and then prices of goods and services go up in response, you are not making any more money at all. We watch House Hunters International a lot and watch home shows from the US a lot and nearly choke to death at the prices of homes down there compared to here. It's staggering. And it's not just because of the failing economy because I have been obsessed with home shows for many many years and it was the same before the big bubble burst. Houses in my city, old cruddy ugly houses that need a lot of work are over $200,000. It's insane. The price of everything has gone up hand in hand with the raises in minimum wage over the past 10 years - but when you are a min wage worker, you notice that the wage goes up FIRST, then the prices of products goes up AFTERWARD. Not the other way around. I was a single parent for a decade, believe me, I paid close attention to all of that for a very long time.
In that case, I agree with you 
