Stouffville businesses feeling the squeeze from minimum wage increase

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 18, 2018
Simon Martin

The start of the new year also brought the start of $14 minimum wage. Many local Stouffville businesses are having to change their policies or pricing to deal with labour cost increase.

When Chris Waye from the Smokery Kitchen and Bar learned up the minimum wage increase he knew it was going to make things more difficult. “The timing of this couldn’t be worse,” he said. “The small business owner is being squeezed on every end.  We have to pay more for hydro, more for electricity more for cable."

With labour cost inflated by close to 20 per cent, Waye said he is left little choice but to raise prices slightly and cut back on hours to make up the difference.

“The option is either staff less or increase your sales,” he said. “Any business is going to look after the business first. It’s survival.”

Employees are the most important part of the business, Waye said. “They make my business happen. What the government is asking right now is tough.”

Waye said what he anticipates is higher prices across the board as businesses can’t simply absorb the sudden increase in labour costs. “My butcher had to raise costs,” he said.

Over at Reesor Farm Market, Jay Reesor said the changes might be tough for some businesses but they won’t have too much impact on him. “I want people to have a living wage,” he said. “There might be a little bit of inflation, people and businesses will have to charge a little bit more.”

One concern Reesor does have about the changes is how it will affect young people. “The folks that may be hit hardest by it are our students,” he said. “There isn’t much incentive to hire a student vs. an adult.”

Past President of the Whitchurch-Stouffville Chamber of Commerce Harry Renaud said the chamber took a strong stand against Bill 148, which included the minimum wage boost.  “We aren’t against the minimum wage increase, but it’s too much too soon," he said.

Businesses under the current rollout have been given little time to plan their businesses around the new wage reality. Renaud urged that the government reconsider yet another increase next year to $15 an hour and give businesses more time to cope with the sudden increase.

In May, the Ontario government announced the largest increase to the minimum wage in the province’s history. It would be increased from $11.60 to $14 on Jan. 1, 2018 and will jump to $15 come 2019.

In the past decade, minimum wage has seen multiple jumps including in 2008 when it went from $8 to $8.75, to $9.50 in 2009, $10.25 in 2010, $11 in 2014, $11.25 in 2015, $11.40 in 2016, $11.60 in 2017 to the current rate, a 60 per cent increase from 10 years ago.

Under what the government says is a plan to create better jobs and fair work places, the Ministry of Labour made major changes to the employment standards and labour laws, known as Bill 148. The legislation included mandating equal pay for equal work, expanding personal emergency leave and more.