Raising the territory's minimum wage to $8.25 an hour would still see some Yukoners who work full-time living below the poverty line.

That's the opinion of Yukon Federation of Labour president Alex Furlong. He is calling on the government to legislate a mandatory minimum wage of no less than $10 an hour.

The Yukon Employment Standards Board (YESB) recently informed Community Services Minister Glenn Hart it would be reviewing the territory's minimum wage.

'Now that their work on the fair wage schedule is complete, they are in a position to undertake consultations on increasing the minimum wage,' Hart said.

On Friday, the YESB publicly announced it's considering raising the Yukon's minimum wage from $7.20 an hour to $8.25 an hour.

According to the Yukon government, 'nearly half of all minimum wage workers are between 15 and 19 with more than 75 per cent attending school full- or part-time.

'The prevalence of teenagers and young adults in the minimum wage category reflects the characteristics and demands of minimum wage work,' a government press release stated earlier this month.

In an interview last week, Furlong said he advocates raising the minimum wage but believes an increase to $8.25-an-hour is not adequate.

'I would ask anyone to try to live on $8.25 an hour.

'It's generally accepted across Canada that at a minimum wage of $10 per hour, people would just be living across the poverty line,' Furlong said.

Keeping the minimum wage below $10 means some families would have to make some tough choices at grocery stores and with their spare time, he added.

'We're making people decide on what they can and can't afford to eat; whether they can spend time with their kids,' Furlong said. Many people working minimum wage jobs have to have more than one job to keep afloat, he added.

The federation's executive director, Doug Rody, agreed with Furlong, saying that having parents working more than one job takes them away from their families.

'They have to get another job so they're not home; the effects are cyclical. Ten dollars an hour is just a starting point,' he said.

In a submission to the federal government's Labour Standards Review last summer, the National Anti-Poverty Organization stated the nation's current minimum wage levels are contributing to the poverty of Canadians.

'Current standards for minimum wages contribute significantly to poverty. Not one province or territory has a minimum wage that allows a worker to live above the poverty line,' the organization stated in its submission.

It also stated that minimum wage levels have not kept pace with the cost of living with low-income Canadians actually getting poorer from year to year.

'Minimum wages have been allowed to fall in real terms from a high point of an average of $8.58 (in inflation adjusted dollars) to $6.76 in 2001; a decline in purchasing power of over 20 per cent.

'Minimum wages (provincial and territorial) must be set at a level that is adequate to live on ... they should be set at a rate of $10-an-hour and indexed to growth of the average hourly wage.'