The minimum wage in Quebec will increase from $13.50 to $14.25 per hour as of May 1. The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity, Jean Boulet, made the announcement on Friday.
The increase affects around 301,000 workers, including 166,000 women workers, in sectors such as retail and restaurants.
For tipped employees, the minimum wage will increase from $10.80 to $11.40.
In an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday, the minister stressed that he was thus respecting his target of maintaining the minimum wage at around 50% of the average hourly wage. This one would be $28.47 according to predictions.
Mr. Boulet believes that a minimum wage of $14.25 an hour is “a good balance” between the various economic and social factors that must be weighed.
“We must take into account the impact that the pandemic may have had on many SMEs in Quebec, which had to face extremely important challenges in terms of maintaining or increasing their economic growth. It must also be important enough to encourage work. At the same time, it must not cause school dropouts. I think we find a good balance,” commented Minister Boulet.
” Step by step “
The major labor organizations and organizations for the defense of low wage earners, who had been demanding for a few years to raise the minimum wage to $15, have since raised their demand to $18 an hour. They maintain that $18 an hour represents a minimum for a dignified life.
Asked about this, the minister said he preferred to go gradually. “We are going step by step. From $14.25 per hour on May 1, 2022, he believes he can raise it to $15 per hour on May 1, 2023, taking into account the economic strength of Quebec.
Ontario has already raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour on January 1.
Minister Boulet objects that Quebec still does well in Canada in terms of disposable income, thanks to its social safety net, its subsidized childcare services and the solidarity tax credit, in particular.
The scarcity of labor in several sectors of economic activity has already put upward pressure on wages. Many employers have had to raise the wages they pay their employees or improve their working conditions in some other way, to keep them or to attract new ones.
“A slap in the face”
“Obviously it’s not enough. It’s a bit of a slap in the face of low earners, ”thundered in an interview Virginie Larivière, spokesperson for the Collective for a Quebec without poverty, which is a member of the Minimum18 coalition.
“We are in a labor shortage. Employers keep telling us that the government needs to do something to help employers find workers. However, the salary can be a fairly clear indication of what it takes to encourage people to go to work, ”recalled Ms. Larivière.
The Minimum18 coalition is campaigning precisely to have the minimum wage set at $18 an hour, in order to get out of poverty.
“At $14.25, you’re a long way off the mark, even if you have a year-round job,” given the recent price hikes at the grocery store, as well as those for gas, housing and others, notes Mrs Lariviere.
“It will hurt” SMEs
“It is certain that it will hurt businesses. We are in a situation where the majority of companies are below their normal income “because of the COVID-19, for his part recalled in an interview François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec of the Canadian Federation of Enterprise. independent.
And that’s on top of an average debt load of $100,000 per SME and payroll taxes, he notes. “We believe that the government should help small businesses, in particular by reducing payroll taxes. »
Mr. Vincent still says he is “relieved” that the increase did not reach $18 an hour, as claimed by the Minimum18 coalition. It would have been “catastrophic” for SMEs, he believes.