The province's minimum wage rose to $9.50 on Tuesday, in keeping with the province's plan to increase the rate to $10.25 by May 1 of next year.
The Nov. 1 hike also included an increase for liquor servers to $8.75.
Whereas British Columbia once had the lowest minimum wage in Canada, the most recent increase passes the title on to Alberta, where workers make at least $9.40, and the Yukon, where the rate is $9.
The government has boasted that the move will have a positive effect on the economy by ensuring that workers have more to spend.
"They are in a better position to support themselves and their families," Minister of Labour, Citizens' Services and Open Government Margaret MacDiarmid was quoted as saying. "We have given considerable advance notice."
The B.C. Federation of Labour reacted by calling the current policy discriminatory, highlighting the discrepancy between the standard minimum wage and that earned by liquor servers.
The group's president, Jim Sinclair, called on the government to scrap the alternate rate.
"Instead of appeasing certain interests, our province should have a minimum wage for all workers with future increases based on increases in the cost of living," Sinclair said in a press release.
The group alleges that the tip wage "takes money from [servers'] pockets and gives it to the owners of bars and licensed restaurants."
Before May 1 of this year, the minimum wage stood at $8 per hour.
