CHRONICLE 16-17 ISSUE 03

12 The Chronicle October 25 - 31, 2016 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Community
Minimum wage increases again
Sam Odrowski
The Chronicle
Minimum wage has increased yet
again, as it has for the past three
years in Ontario, from $11.25 to
$11.40 this past Oct. 1.
Employees are losing their jobs,
having their hours cut and stores
are increasing prices, according
to the Canadian Federation of Independent
Business (CFIB).
The provincial government says
the increase in minimum wage is
meant to match the inflation in
economy.
Peter Stasiuk, a professor of economics
at Durham College says,
because such a low number of
people work minimum wage jobs
in Canada the economy won’t be
impacted in a significant way.
“Minimum wage going up with
inflation isn’t going to affect the
economy drastically,” says Stasiuk.
However, the increase is impacting
people such as Marina
Brock, owner of Brocks Department
Store in Port Perry. She does
not agree with the government increasing
minimum wage as much
as it has.
She says to remain competitive
in the retail business she cannot
raise prices on items in the store,
but instead has to cut employee’s
hours to budget the payroll.
Brock says the private sector
can take care of employees’ wages
themselves. “We use to pay employees
way above minimum wage before
it kept increasing,” she says.
Brock would prefer an increase
based on merit as oppose to being
told by the government what she
should pay her employees.
“There is an initial shock in October,
November when the minimum
wage change comes in,” he
says. “But the economy settles at
new wage levels and new price levels.”
This means that the economy
will eventually balance out wage
increases with price increases.
The Ontario government says
the increases in minimum wage is
to help fight poverty and help Canadians
in their everyday lives. Yet,
according to the CFIB, increasing
minimum wage does little to reduce
poverty because most minimum
wage workers are young and do
There is an initial shock
in October, November
when the minimum
change comes in.
not live in low-income households.
However, the organization says
it does strain small business owners
when a constantly increasing minimum
wage makes it harder for
them to attract and retain good
staff through wages.
The increase forces small business
to look for ways to absorb the
cost of an increasing minimum
wage through reduced hours, reduced
training, and even job cuts,
according to the CFIB Minimum
Wage Report.
The CFIB has estimated a 10 per
cent increase to minimum wage
across Canada would cost between
92,300 and 321,300 jobs. The loss
of jobs would come in the form of
direct job cuts, hiring freezes, and
slower employment growth.
Companies that already profit
heavily such as McDonalds or Wal-
Mart feel little to no effect from the
increase in minimum wage because
with minimum wage increases
comes price increases to balance
out profits, according to Stasiuk.
Minimum wage increase information
are announced by April 1
every year.
Photograph by Sam Odrowski
DC student Judy Krajcik receives a bigger paycheque.