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Dufferin Board of Trade reacts to Wynne’s $15 an hour minimum wage pledge

June 1, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s announced plan to raise the province’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019 has led to the Dufferin Board of Trade (DBOT) speaking out on the subject.

Nick Lumia, DBOT’s communications and research coordinator, says they are disappointed with the government’s decision go ahead with these reforms without doing an economic impact analysis, something DBOT vocally called upon.

“We feel that these can have a negative impact on the local economy, especially our small businesses.”

Ontario will be the second province to increase the minimum wage to $15, following Alberta. The increase will be phased in over  the next 18 months, rising to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018, then to $15 an hour the following January. The current minimum wage is $11.40 an hour.

Mr. Lumia says they’ve been hearing from a lot of their businesses in regards to hiring, especially youth. “A lot of employers were taking the cost incentive as a reason to hire the youth; younger workers, less experienced workers, over more experienced workers, because they had that wage incentive”

He says more employers are telling them that now that “they’re going to be more inclined to hire more experienced workers.”

The wage increase is part of a larger piece of proposed legislation, The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, which aims to better protect part-time or contract workers. Several changes include one that after five years with a company, the minimum vacation would rise to three weeks per year. Workers would be given 10 personal emergency leave days per year, two of them paid, while employees don’t need to give a sick note when taking personal emergency leave. Also, part-time and full-time workers doing the same job would receive the same pay.

Discussing how small businesses will be the most impacted, Mr. Lumia says it’s because with this short timeline, it will be difficult for them to transition. “They’re the least resilient to changes. They’re going to have to pass this rise in their costs to their consumers.” He explained that employers will reconsider how many employees they will have, and how many hours they can work.

He added they are fine with the paid vacation, and emergency leave, but the Ontario government needs to “have an understating before changing their implements, and how they’re going to affect the local economy.”

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