Manitoba is one of four provinces that will see its minimum wage increase Tuesday.
The rate, which is increasing by 50 cents to $15.80, is tied to the rate of inflation of the previous calendar year, and follows a formula set in provincial law.
Other provinces are seeing even greater increases — Ontario‘s minimum is rising by 65 cents to $17.20 an hour, while Prince Edward Island will see a 60 cent bump to $16 — coming after a previous 40-cent hike earlier this year.
Saskatchewan’s minimum wage is going up by a full dollar, but at $15, it will remain tied with Alberta as the lowest in the country.
Chuck Davidson with the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce told 680 CJOB the current formula is working in this province.
“What we like right now is that there is some certainty around the process for minimum wage — it’s going up at the rate of inflation,” Davidson said.
“That makes it easier for businesses to plan, and gives them that certainty that they’re looking for as well.”
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Even with the increase, Davidson said, the number of people making minimum wage in Manitoba continues to drop, and that’s a positive thing.
“Once you have a good employee, you want to make sure you can do everything to keep them. Whether that’s benefits, whether it’s vacation, it doesn’t matter what it is,” he said.
“That’s something we’ve seen over the last number of years — with those challenges with employers being able to find the workforce that they need, the better you treat them, the better chance they’re going to stay with you.”
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the $15.80 minimum wage still falls short of what’s needed to survive in Winnipeg. Their report “Struggling to Get Ahead” lists the living wage at $19.21 an hour for a two-adult, two-child household. CCPA’s Manitoba Director Molly McCracken calls it a “bare bones” budget that doesn’t include savings for retirement or education.
“1 in 4 Manitobans or about 171,000 Manitobans are working between a minimum wage and a living wage of 1921 an hour,” she said, adding they are disproportionately women and newcomers.
McCracken also says while tying the minimum wage to inflation is a good practice in theory, Manitoba didn’t set it up for success.
“The base rate they started from wasn’t connected to anything, any cost of living. It was just what the number was historically. So that’s why we’re never going to catch up, because we don’t have a minimum wage that’s connected to the actual cost of living.,” McCracken said.
The highest minimum wage of all Canadian provinces is in British Columbia, at $17.40. That’s 10 cents higher that the federal minimum wage. When you include the territories, Nunavut tops the list at $19 an hour.
With files from The Canadian Press and Iris Dyck
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