Tipping the Scales
How server wages measure up across the country
BY Melissa Mewdell
While unions have made great strides in improving pay and working conditions, servers and bartenders still endure some of the worst working conditions in the country and are often paid an even lower “minimum wage.” As a service to the students, starving artists and everyone else who pours our drinks, we’ve compared how servers are treated across Canada.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Minimum hourly wage: $8
Uniforms: Employers must provide uniforms at no cost to employees.
Tips: No policy protects tips, but employers aren’t allowed to use tips to cover business expenses (such as dine-and-dashers and broken dishes).
QUEBEC
Minimum hourly wage: $6.85
Uniforms: Employers must provide and maintain uniforms at no cost to employees.
Tips: Employers can’t take tips or enforce tip sharing among employees. However, staff members must report how much they earn each day.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Minimum hourly wage: $6.30
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: Tips are considered the property of employees, and employers can’t force employees to participate in tip sharing.
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
Minimum hourly wage: $6.25
Uniforms: Employers must provide uniforms at no cost to employees.
Tips: Tips are considered the property of employees, so they can’t be forced to share them, and employers can’t take tips to cover business expenses.
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Minimum hourly wage: $6.80
Uniforms: Employers must provide uniforms at no cost to employees.
Tips: The government is currently working on legislation that recognizes tips as the property of employees.
NUNAVUT
Minimum hourly wage: $8.50
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Minimum hourly wage: $8.25
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
YUKON
Minimum hourly wage: $7.20
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
SASKATCHEWAN
Minimum hourly wage: $6.65
Uniforms: Employers must provide and maintain uniforms at no cost to employees.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
MANITOBA
Minimum hourly wage: $7.25
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
ONTARIO
Minimum hourly wage: $6.50
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
ALBERTA
Minimum hourly wage: $5.90 (the government plans to raise it to $7 in September)
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
NOVA SCOTIA
Minimum hourly wage: $6.05 (after three months’ experience, it’s bumped to $6.50)
Uniforms: Employees may have to buy their own.
Tips: No legislation protects tips.
