Gradually increasing the minimum hourly wage to $18 an hour and reining in companies that violate pay equity are among the key measures of the Parti Québécois (PQ) to fight against the impoverishment of workers.
On the eve of Labor Day, the PQ leader unveiled salary commitments in Montreal on Sunday morning.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wants the 200,000 or so workers currently earning minimum wage in Quebec to be able to earn an hourly rate of at least $18 an hour after three years of the PQ government.
“The idea behind this measure is that for us, all trades, all workers are necessary to make our society work. So there is no reason that people who work full time should not be able to reach the viable income threshold, “said the sovereignist leader, in a press briefing in a café in his constituency. of Camille-Laurin, in the east end of Montreal.
Currently, the minimum wage is $14.25 per hour in Quebec.
In response to businesses that fear the impact of a minimum wage increase on their survival or the price of their services or products, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon believes that these concerns have never materialized in places where such a measure has been applied, or has sometimes led to “readjustments” in certain sectors.
Last fall, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business published a report predicting that a 33% jump in the minimum wage would hurt Quebec SMEs and represent an additional cost of $10,806 for an employer per year per employee. A third of small businesses are expected to raise the price of their products and services.
The PQ also proposes to give “more teeth” to the Pay Equity Act. The party argues that women’s average hourly earnings are 91.9% of men’s.
“We set ourselves the objective within five years of reducing it to 5% (pay gap) or less with seven strong measures. This is the next step to ensure that gender equality is not just a concept and that it translates into the way workers are remunerated,” said Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. .
The political formation promises to compel the 26% of private sector companies that have not carried out the pay equity process to do so. To achieve this, it intends to impose penalties in “thousands of dollars” on employers in the event of non-compliance with pay equity rules.
“There is an aspect of the law that is missing. Any law must include penal consequences for the recalcitrant, if there are none and there is more or less follow-up, it is not surprising that there is a proportion of companies (offenders) who do not are not necessarily in bad faith,” said.
The political party undertakes to change the pay equity analysis grid to include the comparison between different employment sectors that are not related to each other, rather than conducting this evaluation within the same company.
The PQ also suggests replacing any lump sum with a salary adjustment, and that the retroactive salary adjustment observed be paid “immediately”.
He also wants to force the establishment of a committee to maintain pay equity in all companies and to improve the human and financial resources of the CNESST to ensure the application of the law.