It'll be in place on Friday. The minimum wage in Saskatchewan will go up by 36 cents to $11.81 an hour. That'll take us from having the lowest minimum wage in the country to the 2nd lowest. Only workers in New Brunswick will be earning less.
I made minimum wage for the first time in the summer of 1983, working for what we called the "Y- City Playground Program". I was a playground supervisor.
As I recall, I was making $3.65 an hour. So, for 6 hours a day I'd rake in $21.90 each day and every two weeks I'd get a pay cheque for just over $200. Man, I thought I was a roller. I didn't have to ask my dad for money...in July and August.
Oh, I also worked part-time at the Moose Jaw Times-Herald Sports Department back then. I got paid 35 cents per column inch. So, the more I wrote the more I earned. I quickly learned how turn a simple baseball scoresheet into a detailed story of the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat - a lot of substance and no brevity. I used every adjective and adverb known to man in those stories I wrote.
If you've got some of those newspaper clippings from the mid-80s, I want you to know that I was the wordsmith and the colourful contest wasn't exactly for your reading enjoyment - it was all for the money.