Ontario’s lowest paid workers are being promised to raise no matter who wins the June 2 election.
In an announcement Tuesday, Labor Minister Monte McNaughton said the province will raise the minimum wage to $15.50 per hour starting in October.
“Ontario’s minimum wage continues to be among the highest in Canada,” McNaughton said, noting it’s above that of Alberta, Quebec.
“This raise will make a world of difference.”
The NDP has pledged that, if elected, it will hike wages to $16 an hour by October, and the Liberals have promised $16 an hour by January 2023. The current minimum wage is $15 an hour.
After the 2018 election, the Ontario government scrapped the Liberals’ planned minimum wage hike, a boost that would have hit $15 an hour in 2019. Then in January, the government boosted the minimum wage from $14.35 to $15 an hour, which will bump up to $15.50 an hour Oct. 1 — an eight per cent increase in total. And going forward, yearly increases would be tied to inflation.
Some 700,000 workers in the province earn the minimum wage. McNaughton said minimum wage earners who work a 40-hour work week will see a pay raise of $1,768 this year.
The NDP has promised a buck-a-year minimum wage increases, hitting $20 an hour by 2026.
“The price of everything is going up — from gas to housing to hydro bills — and with Doug Ford’s low-wage policy, everyone is feeling the squeeze,” Horwath has said.
The NDP said that if the Ford government had gone ahead with the Liberals’ planned minimum wage increases back in 2019, workers would have earned an additional $5,300 by now.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)