Ontario will be raising the provincial minimum wage on Sunday to $16.55 an hour from the current rate of $15.50, regardless of one’s employment status as a full-time or part-time employee.
The government claims that the increase is expected to benefit over 900,000 workers in Ontario who are currently working for $15.50 per hour. Those who work full time at minimum wage can expect to see an extra $2,200 in earnings annually from the increase.
The student minimum wage will also be increased by $1 per hour, going from $14.60 to $15.60. Student minimum wage applies to people under the age of 18 who work for 28 hours or less per week during the active school season and throughout the summer.
Those who are employed but work from home will earn an increase of $1.15, from $17.05 per hour t0 $18.20, according to CP24 News.
Guides for hunting, fishing and wilderness tours will also get an increase in their daily pay, going from $77.60 to $82.85 if they work less than five hours per day. Employees in those fields who work more than five hours per day will see their daily pay increase from $155.25 to $165.75.
Ontario already has one of the higher minimum wages when compared to other provinces and territories. Only British Columbia and the Yukon have a higher minimum wage at $16.75 and $16.77, respectively.
The provinces with the lowest minimum wage are Saskatchewan at $14 per hour and New Brunswick at $14.75 per hour.
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and P.E.I. all share the same minimum wage of $15 per hour.
Quebec and Manitoba have similar minimum wages at $15.25 and $15.30, respectively.
Nunavut’s minimum wage is currently $16 per hour and the Northwest Territories is $16.05.
Canada also has a federal minimum wage that applies to all federally regulated private sectors like banks, interprovincial air, road, rail and marine transportation and the post office. The federal minimum wage was increased earlier this year in April, rising from $15.55 to $16.65 per hour.
The Ontario Living Wage Network analyzes how much the province’s hourly wage would need to be to provide the proper income to cover the cost of living on an annual basis. Their most recent analysis concluded that the Ontario minimum wage had not been properly updated to compete with the increased cost of living.
The network’s latest report found that the living wage needed to be over $19 per hour in most regions of the province and $23 an hour in the Greater Toronto Area.
In 2021, the Ford government announced that the minimum wage would increase from $14.35 to $15 per hour in January 2022. It was later increased that same year from $15 to $15.50 in October.
Still, labour advocates have called on the provincial government to raise the minimum wage again to $20 per hour.
