Minimum wage increasing

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According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, nearly 12% of salaried employees in Ontario are earning minimum wage which is set to increase this Saturday by 15 cents, from $11.25 to $11.40. Ontario’s minimum wage will be the second-highest out of all the provinces in 2016. Alberta’s is set to jump by a dollar to $12.20 and will reach $15 by 2018.

The average rent for a studio apartment in Hamilton is $745, the same unit would cost over $1200 in Toronto. If you’re earning the new minimum wage, you’ll be spending nearly 49% of your income on rent in Hamilton and about 80% in Toronto and the payments don’t stop there. For those living on minimum wage the increase is a welcome move, but they still have to pay income tax and that’s something economists would like to see change.

“Maybe what should happen instead is that their income taxes should be cut because as it stands we’re having some of the lowest income people in the province paying income tax which should not be the way we want to do things.” Mike Veall.

Professor Veall says many economists would endorse the elimination of personal income tax for people earning minimum wage but there’s no calculation to determine how that would affect the government’s budget.