Increase in the minimum wage in Quebec starting this Sunday, May 1, bringing it to $14.25 per hour, which represents an increase of 75 cents in the hourly rate.
The increase in the general minimum wage rate will benefit 301,100 people in Quebec, according to data from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity.
For tipped employees, the minimum wage increases to $11.40 per hour, which represents a 60 cent increase.
Note also that the minimum wage payable to an employee assigned exclusively to picking raspberries or strawberries is respectively $4.23 (+$0.22) and $1.13 (+$0.06) per kilogram , according to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity.
A considerable increase that hurts SMEs
On the employers’ side, it is pointed out that this 5.56% increase in the minimum wage represents additional costs of $237.1 million for businesses, which worries the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which observes that this new increase comes in a context of fragility of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), hit by rising costs.
“The two years of health restrictions have left an average debt of $108,000 per Quebec SME as well as sub-par income for the majority of them. The reality is that their ability to absorb cost increases is not infinite,” said François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the CFIB in a press release.
As many as 60 percent of SMEs believe rising costs are having a significant negative impact on their business, said the SME grouping, which has 95,000 members across all business sectors and regions.
According to Mr. Vincent, “this will have a definite impact on entrepreneurs who will have no choice but to increase prices”.
The CFIB believes that other solutions exist in the Government of Quebec to help employers offer better salary conditions to their employees, in particular by offering tax credits to SMEs or by lowering taxes on payroll.
Workers who are getting poorer
However, the discourse is quite different on the side of the Collective for a Quebec Without Poverty, which finds that this 75-cent increase in the hourly rate of the minimum wage is “irresponsible and insulting for the hundreds of thousands of workers who live in poverty and who lose a little more of their purchasing power every day”.
“With its ridiculous increase in the minimum wage, not only does the government refuse to help these people get out of poverty, but it watches them become impoverished without flinching”, launches the spokesperson of the Collective, Virginie Larivière. .
She points out that this increase in the minimum wage does not even counter the effects of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which increased by 6.7% from March 2021 to March 2022 in Quebec, “unheard of. in the last 30 years”.
“Last November, the Food Banks of Quebec reminded us that the number of people with employment income who have used their services has increased by 40% due to the pandemic and high inflation. Everything leads us to believe that the trend is not about to be reversed… and the government is washing its hands of it! “, she denounced.
Since last fall, the Collective for a Quebec Without Poverty, which brings together 36 organizations, has been demanding a minimum wage of at least $18 an hour.
Insufficient minimum wage, denounces Québec solidaire
The person in charge of Quebec solidaire in matters of work, the deputy for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Alexandre Leduc, also deplores a completely outdated vision of the Legault government with regard to the progress of the minimum wage in Quebec.
“Every week, I come across businesses that post starting salaries above the minimum wage. These companies have understood something that the government still does not understand: a viable minimum wage is a means of combating the difficulty of recruiting because it makes minimum wage positions more attractive,” explained Mr. Leduc.
A month ago, Labor Minister Jean Boulet hinted that the minimum wage could exceed $15 an hour in 2023.
According to the member for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, this symbolic amount which has long been claimed is no longer relevant.
” Frankly ! $15 was needed five years ago, not a living wage today. We’ve been talking about the cost of living crisis for months, does Mr. Boulet believe that people on minimum wage are immune to the rise in all basic goods? I have the misfortune to announce to him that this is not the case and that today, a decent and viable minimum wage is $18 an hour,” reiterated MNA Alexandre Leduc.