NDP MLA Kevin Barr is calling on the Yukon government to immediately raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.

The government has announced the minimum wage rate will rise from $9 per hour to $9.27 on April 1, due to a three-per-cent rise in the Consumer Price Index.

The Employment Standards Board, which began a review in December 2011, has yet to conclude and make a recommendation on change.

"We really hope that the board will recommend an increase above 27 cents,” Barr said Monday.

"$9.27 an hour is too low to live on in the Yukon with the high cost of housing and other amenities. $9.27 is not a living wage in Yukon or anywhere in Canada.”

A $9.27 minimum wage would still leave the territory at the bottom of the pack in Canada, Barr noted.

"We currently have the lowest minimum wage of all the northern territories,” he said.

"We have (the) lowest rate in the North, the West, the East, and the South. Six provinces and territories are at $10 or more,” said Barr.

Despite Premier Darrell Pasloski's suggestions of a prosperous economic period, Barr said, the government has done little to see benefits trickle down to the working poor.

It's difficult to see how 27 extra cents per hour contributes to the government's commitment to implement a comprehensive social inclusion strategy, said Barr.

However, Rick Karp, president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, brings a different perspective to the issue.

"No one makes minimum wage,” Karp told the Star this morning.

"I do not know of one business in town that actually pays it. Wages here for inexperienced workers generally start at between $10.50 and $11.50 per hour.”

Many factors go into setting the minimum wage, he added.

"There are lots of things that even businesses do not understand about the minimum wage,

"For instance, it was never meant to be a social safety net, which we have, in the form of social assistance and social insurance. We have a very generous social safety net in the Yukon.

"It is meant to be a way for students and those who do not have experience to lay the groundwork for future employment,” said the long-time small business owner.

"People working and living off minimum wage in the territory is miniscule.”

A more accurate assessment comes from looking at the weekly wage of workers, Karp added. The Yukon is the second or third highest in the country.

"Minimum wage is for people who need experience in the job market,” he said.

"The catch-22 is that you find a great job and you'll get great experience from it, but you can't get it without experience.

"There is a certain morality to it, in that if businesses can hire someone for next to nothing, they are going to do it because it's good for them.

"So, there is a moral responsibility to have a minimum wage and it has to be determined by government, not business, but it also has to be based on what is reasonable for workers and industry.”

Karp said he is more concerned about the working poor, and about people who are working and trying to find housing.

"Let's look at them and let's get some affordable housing on the market,” Karp urged.

"That's what we should be focusing on.”

The Department of Education and the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce have created a business training fund for workers in the Yukon to obtain training to get jobs, where training is not already provided, the chamber president noted.

"The program is only three weeks old, and it has already seen seven or eight applicants and four programs have been funded,” he said.

"We do not need to keep increasing minimum wage; we need to keep training our local population, to train them to rise up in business.

"The correct model is to have a minimum wage, created by government where needs are established and a responsible wage is determined, while understanding all of the issues involved,” Karp added.

The Yukon nominee program, under which workers are imported to the territory, has driven up the starting wage, so local businesses really aren't looking at minimum wage anymore,” Karp said.