It will mean a little extra in the wallets of some workers and a little less in the cash registers of businesses, but the minimum wage in Ontario is set to increase to $15.50 per hour today.
The student minimum wage will also go up to $14.60 per hour from $14.10. The current general minimum wage in Ontario is $15 per hour and it applies to bartenders and alcohol servers as well.
This is an eight per cent increase over one year.
In January, Ontario raised the general minimum wage to $15 and removed the lower minimum wage for liquor servers.
The latest increase is tied to the Consumer Price Index, and means that workers earning the general minimum wage and working 40 hours per week would see their annual pay rise by $1,768. Liquor servers who work 40 hours per week would see an annual raise of $5,512 according to an Ontario Labour Ministry release.
In a nutshell, Ontario’s new minimum wage rates will be:
- General: $15.50 per hour, a raise from $15 per hour
- Students under 18: $14.60 per hour, a raise from $14.10 per hour
- Hunting, fishing and wilderness guides: $77.60 per day, a raise from $75, when working less than five consecutive hours in a day; and $155.25 per day, a raise from $150.05, when working five or more hours in a day
- Homeworkers (those who do paid work out of their own homes for employers): $17.05 per hour, a raise from $16.50 per hour
