Georgina businesses challenged by minimum wage hike
Record hike having a big impact on small business bottom line

YorkRegion.com
Jan. 18, 2018
Heidi Riedner

Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government implemented the largest increase to the minimum wage in the province’s history, boosting it to $14 from $11.60. It will go up to $15 come 2019.

While changes under the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act mandate equal pay for part-time workers, increased vacation entitlements and expanded personal emergency leave, it is the minimum-wage boost that is garnering most of the attention.

Keswick business We Print T-shirts has always believed in fair compensation and paid well above minimum wage to its staff, owner Stacey Bennett says, but adds the business simply doesn’t have the payroll budget to offer 20-per cent raises to its staff.

“I’m sure we are not the only ones to face this challenge,” says Bennett, who owns and operates the business with her husband Gilles Landry.

While the new minimum-wage rate is one labour advocates have been urging for years and dozens of economists signed a letter in support of, business groups have been pushing hard against it.

York Region chambers of commerce voiced their concerns about the changes coming too quickly without knowing the impact on local businesses.

At a chamber town hall meeting, an Ontario Chamber of Commerce representative encouraged small business owners to fight the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, calling it “nutso” and “heartbreaking” for small businesses.

Bennett agrees her business is one of many that will find it difficult to absorb the increased costs over such a short time frame.

“Prices will have to adjust and margins will be even slimmer in all businesses to accommodate this significant change,” Bennett says, adding it will be especially challenging for an area like Georgina, "with a smaller consumer base, but commercial rents that are typically higher than other cities".

Some small businesses have posted apologetic signs in storefront windows, explaining to customers that prices will be going up in order to offset the cost of the minimum wage increase.

Some have already re-examined their hiring policies in the wake of the changes.

While a grocery store is often someone’s first job, Giancarlo Trimarchi of Vince's Market said it’s a lot riskier for the employer to take a chance on an inexperienced rookie when they are making $14 right away. 

“Grocery stores aren’t known for their record margins,” he said, adding the changes will have a big impact on the business’s bottom line since Vince’s employs about 360 people at its Newmarket, Uxbridge, East Gwillimbury and Tottenham locations.

Many small business owners polled criticized the Wynne government for "electioneering" and creating a smoke-and-mirrors show over the issue of a decent wage on the backs of businesses.

They say the real impetus behind the legislation was bringing in more tax dollars to the government while low-income families may actually receive less access to subsidized programs without corresponding adjustments being made to current tax brackets.