TORONTO – The Ontario government is planning a review of the province’s minimum wage.
The Ministry of Labour announced Wednesday that it had appointed a Minimum Wage Advisory Panel to study a change to the wage.
Minimum wage is currently frozen at $10.25 in Ontario. With the exception of restaurant servers, students under the age of 16 and homeworkers, no labourer in the province can be paid less than minimum wage.
“We’re taking steps to ensure that the setting of minimum wage is out of politicians’ hands,” Minister of Labour Yasir Naqvi said in a press release Wednesday. “This will ensure a fair wage for Ontario’s workers and predictability for businesses.”
The panel will also look at ways of calculating and adjusting the minimum wage in the future. Currently, Ontario, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories are the only regions in Canada that do not have a mechanism to determine changes to the minimum wage.
Ontario’s minimum wage is among the highest in the country. Only Nova Scotia, the Yukon and Nunavut have higher wages with $10.30, $10.54 and $11.00, respectively.
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