Ontario’s minimum wage will be $15 an hour as of January.
Premier Doug Ford announced the hike from $14.35 on Tuesday, three years after cancelling a planned increase to $15 scheduled for 2019 by his predecessor Kathleen Wynne.
Premier Doug Ford announced a minimum wage increase from $14.35 to $15 on Tuesday, three years after cancelling a planned increase to $15 scheduled for Jan. 2019 by his predecessor Kathleen Wynne. PHOTO CREDIT/ COURTESY OF ELI RIDDER
The government’s changes include scrapping the special pay rate for liquor servers and increasing the rates for students under 18, wilderness guides and other industries regulated by the province.
“Workers deserve to have more money in their pockets because they earned it,” Ford said flanked by union leaders in front of a Unifor union office in Milton.
The changes include elimination of a special minimum-wage rate for liquor servers, who would be entitled to the general minimum wage.
Students under 18, homeworkers and hunting, fishing, and wilderness guides would also see an increase in their special minimum-wage rates.
Wynne and the Liberals hiked the minimum wage to $14 from $11.40 in 2018 and planned a dollar increase for January 2019, with the wage then tied to inflation.
“At this point, the $15 minimum-wage increase that they should have had back in 2019 just isn’t going to cut it,” New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said.
Ford’s Progressive Conservatives cancelled the planned increase after winning the June 2018 election, saying $15-an-hour would force employers to cut jobs.
Archie Chhetri, permitted to work only 20 hours a week as an international student, said the wage hike will put more money in her pocket.
“I understand that $15 is only a dollar more, but it still makes a difference and is beneficial,” Chhetri, a first-year Humber fashion student, told Humber Et Cetera.
The premier’s announcement comes within six months of the June 2022 election and amid a labour shortage as the economy reopens from pandemic lockdowns.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner criticized the government for its delay.
“Doug Ford is yet again flip-flopping with a delayed and lukewarm minimum-wage increase,” he said.
“It is good that the Ford government has finally seen the light and revoked his previous cancellation of the minimum wage increase to $15 an hour,” Schreiner said in a statement.
The Green MPP referenced the living wage, a measure of the actual cost of living in a community.
“But it’s not enough to make life affordable for people,” he said. “We need a living wage for workers in this province.”
New data released by Ontario Living Wage Network this week shows the hourly living wage is $22.08 for Toronto and $19.80 for Peel Region.
Horwath accused the Liberals and Ford of using the minimum-wage policy as a way to win elections.
She said she is “sick and tired” of watching the Liberals and Conservatives using minimum-wage workers as “political pawns” in election campaigning.
“It is disgusting, it is cruel, and it continues to happen. It is a shameful tactic and I’m sick of it, and I’m sure working people are sick of it too,” she said.
“Mr. Ford talks a lot about being for the little guy. But I guess not when it comes to paying a decent wage that you can build a life with,” Horwath said.
— With files by Eli Ridder