The $15-an-hour minimum wage emerges as key in 2018 election

The $15-an-hour minimum wage is emerging as the first major issue of the spring election campaign.

 

TheStar.com
Nov. 15, 2017
Robert Benzie

The $15-an-hour minimum wage is emerging as the first major issue of the spring election campaign.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is raising the $11.60 hourly rate to $14 on Jan. 1, insists it is full-steam ahead for the wage to increase to $15 in 2019 if the Liberals are re-elected June 7.

Wynne criticized the Progressive Conservatives for announcing Tuesday they would slowly phase in the increase by 25 cents a year so it wouldn't be $15 until 2022.

"A delay is a denial," the premier said Wednesday at a United Way of Greater Toronto event in the EY Tower on Adelaide St. W.

"So if you delay the minimum wage, you're actually denying that catch up. We've had these conversations in this province for years," said Wynne.

"The previous government under the Conservatives froze the minimum wage for their entire term," she said, referring to former PC premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, who governed between 1995 and 2003.

But Tory MPP John Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke), citing studies that have shown between 50,000 and 90,000 jobs could vanish due to the raise, stressed businesses cannot afford such a dramatic increase.

"A job not lost means a worker can still put food on his family's table. The tens of thousands of people who will lose their jobs just because the ... (Liberal government) wants to use the minimum wage for crass political gain will be denied any income," he said.

Yakabuski said "a slightly slower rollout of the $15 minimum wage would get employees their pay raise and save their jobs and the businesses they work for."

Labour Minister Kevin Flynn noted under the Liberal plan the wage would be tied to inflation after it reaches $15 in 2019.

That means if Ontario's annual inflation rate stays constant at 2 per cent over the next few years the 2019 $15-an-hour minimum wage would be about $15.30 in 2020, $15.60 in 2021, and around $15.90 in 2022.

"I'm not sure if it's the issue of the campaign, but it clearly differentiates the two parties. We take an approach that really speaks to the interests of ordinary working people and the Conservatives, in my opinion, have chosen the wrong route," said Flynn.

"It's asking people to just remain poor for another four years," he said.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who has long championed a higher minimum wage, said she is concerned that the Tories would limit increases to $14.25 in 2019, $14.50 in 2020, and $14.75 in 2021 before finally getting to $15.

"We don't want to see the minimum wage continue to erode over time," said Horwath, who will announce her party's plans for future hikes closer to the spring election.

"We have been the ones who have been pushing the Liberals in this regard. It's a matter of making sure that people are paid a decent wage and that folks who are working 40 hours a week can actually put a roof over their head and feed their kids," she said.

"I don't know where (the Conservatives') ideas come from, but ... they're totally out of touch."