Rising wage demands eroding B.C. business bottom lines

November 16, 2022

Union contracts being negotiated and ratified in B.C. could affect salary negotiations at private-sector firms.

In a worst-case scenario this could lead to a wage spiral. Higher wages mean more money is sloshing around in the economy, enabling consumers to buy goods. That in turn pushes up prices for those goods and heightens worker calls for even higher wages.

Private-sector wage negotiations differ from non-union ones because salary increases do not need to be uniform across the workforce. They are also done once each year instead of covering multiple years at once.

Source: Business in Vancouver