Minimum wage to increase 20 cents an hour

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This article was published 11/04/2018 (2762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s minimum wage will increase by 20 cents Oct. 1 from $11.15 an hour to $11.35 an hour.

Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen said Wednesday the increase is based on legislation last year that ties minimum wage increases to increases in the consumer price index, which was 1.6 per cent in 2017, then rounded up to the nearest five cents.

“Our commitment is to provide sustainable and predictable increases to Manitoba’s minimum wage,” Pedersen said in a prepared statement. “Last year we passed legislation to index minimum wage with the rate of inflation through a fully transparent formula.”

NDP leader Wab Kinew and anti-poverty activists immediately repeated their consistent calls for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

Kinew, however, reiterated his promise that he wouldn’t raise the minimum wage overnight if the NDP wins the 2020 election. He would phase in the increase to reach $15 an hour by the end of his first mandate in 2024.

“The (government) increase is not enough. No one who works fulltime in Manitoba should live in poverty,” he told reporters.

On the other hand, said Kinew, “It can’t be a shock” to employers.

Kinew said the poverty line is just below $15 an hour, but insisted that waiting six years to hit that mark would not leave low-income Manitobans very far below the poverty line in 2024. An NDP government would catch the minimum wage up to the poverty line in 2025 in the first year of its second mandate, Kinew said.

Others want to close that gap now.

“The government has enshrined that people’s poverty wage is stagnant. We see a $15 minimum wage in Ontario, Alberta, B.C.,” Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck said.

“It is below what is required for a family with children to live on. The minimum wage is not tied to what a family needs to meet basic needs in Manitoba. This is especially true for single parents who only have one salary,” said Lynne Fernandez of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“It is not enough to adjust for inflation; all that does is keep families at the same level of poverty. The living wage in Winnipeg for a two-parent, two-child family, with both parents working for minimum wage is $14.54. For a one-parent, one-child family, it is $17.40. The same figures respectively for Brandon are $14.55 and $16.98. For Thompson, they’re $15.28 and $17.58.”

Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Loren Remillard said the debate should be about how to end poverty, not to trying to figure out how to use the minimum wage to do that.

“It really is a lost opportunity for us to focus on what matters,” Remillard said. “It’s unfortunate minimum wage is being used as a povery reduction tool.”

Instead, look at options such as a guaranteed income for adult low-income workers and for people on social assistance, for whom minimum wage increases would do nothing, Remillard said.

He said minimum wage is intended for young people still living at home. A cost-of-living increase is a balanced approach that meets the need of those workers and their employers, he said.

“The solution is not to elevate minimum wage (for full-time, low-paid workers). It’s to get those people into higher-paying jobs. We’d rather have a much more comprehensive policy that addresses poverty,” Remillard said.

Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president Chuck Davidson applauded the provincial government’s plan.

“The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce is supportive of the approach the provincial government has taken in regards to the minimum wage increase as proposed, as it is based on a formula that we support that is predictable, fair, and provides greater certainty for Manitoba business owners,” Davidson said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca