Ontario minimum wage to increase to $16.55 per hour Oct. 1

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The CANADIAN PRESS

It marks a 6.8 per cent boost from the current rate of $15.50 an hour, an increase tied to inflation.

The increase means someone making minimum wage and working 40 hours per week would see their pay increase by nearly $2,200 per year, the government said.

It will go a long way toward helping people with the cost of living, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said in an interview.

โ€œIโ€™m proud of my record around minimum wage, to increase it to $16.55 an hour, the highest of any province in the country,โ€ he said.

โ€œBut I also want to be clear that minimum wage jobs should be a starting point and not an end point. Thatโ€™s why weโ€™re investing hundreds of millions of dollars to retrain and upskill workers for bigger paycheques.โ€

McNaughton said the government is indicating the Oct. 1 increase now in order to give businesses time to plan.

Labour advocates and opposition critics have said Ontario should introduce a $20 minimum wage.

โ€œGiven the current cost of living crisis and record-high annual inflation, these legislated adjustments are a lifeline for workers struggling to make ends meet,โ€ Deena Ladd, executive director of the Workersโ€™ Action Centre wrote in a statement.

โ€œ(But) Ontarioโ€™s minimum wage is much lower than it should be. The minimum wage on Oct. 1 would be $17.95 had (Premier Doug) Ford not cancelled the $15 minimum wage back in January 2019.โ€

The Progressive Conservatives cancelled a planned minimum wage increase from $14 to $15 per hour after they took office in 2018. The government then raised the minimum wage to $15 in January of last year.

The Ontario Living Wage Network says a living wage in many parts of the province would be $19, but in the Greater Toronto Area it is over $23.

Yukonโ€™s minimum wage, at $16.77, is higher than what Ontarioโ€™s will rise to, and the federal governmentโ€™s minimum wage will be $16.65 as of Saturday.

Ontario is also working on its portable benefits plan that would provide health and dental benefits attached to a worker, not a workplace, McNaughton noted.

That program is intended to cover workers in the gig economy, retail and hospitality jobs who donโ€™t have benefits, and accommodate people who may change careers throughout their lives. A task force set to deliver a blueprint for it in the summer.

Also on Oct. 1, the minimum wage for Ontario students will increase from $14.60 to $15.60 an hour for those under age 18 who work 28 hours a week or less when school is in session or work during a school break or summer holidays.

People who do paid work out of their own homes for employers will have to be paid at least $18.20 an hour, up from $17.05.

The minimum wage for hunting, fishing and wilderness guides is set to rise from $77.60 to $82.85 when working less than five consecutive hours in a day, and from $155.25 to $165.75 when working five or more hours in a day.

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