Another increase in the province’s minimum wage is coming at the end of the month.
On Saturday, October 1, the minimum wage will increase by 50 cents to $13.70 an hour.
The province will see another increase on April 1 and again next fall so that the minimum wage will increase to $15 dollars an hour by October of 2023.
The NL Employers’ Council says minimum wage is a “misunderstood policy” and a tough issue that is difficult to discuss publicly.
Executive Director Jaclyn Sullivan says minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage, and you can’t look at the issue in isolation.
“It’s not what the average weekly wage is in NL— which is actually among some of the highest in the country,” says Sullivan. While it is important to have minimum wage indexed to inflation, “that’s not what we’re doing here,” she says. Instead, says Sullivan, it’s being increased to what she calls a political, arbitrary standard.
She says it does create a disadvantage for certain businesses, especially those that are marginal.
What’s missed in the conversation says Sullivan, is that paying minimum wage is a choice some businesses make. For many businesses, it’s not a choice and if they could pay more, they would. She says raising the minimum wage is about striking the right balance.