Raising Manitoba’s minimum wage by 40 cents ‘doesn’t cut it,’ say labour advocates

The Manitoba government is bringing forth a bill that could raise the minimum wage in the province by 40 cents, but some say the minimum is not enough. They are pushing for a living wage for Manitobans.

The current minimum wage is set to increase from $11.95 to $12.35 in October.

Kevin Rebeck, the president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, says that raise needs to be much higher.

“This new bill doesn’t guarantee anything, yet,” said Rebeck.

“Forty cents simply just doesn’t cut it. We are all facing rising costs at the pump, grocery stores and we need to do better. We’ve got provinces, conservative governments in New Brunswick, Saskatchewan that were embarrassed to have the lowest minimum wage in the country and they made significant increases.”

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Kate Kehler, the executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, says minimum wage should be at least $16 so people can afford to live as costs keep rising.

“One sector that they have left out is the anti-poverty advocates,” said Kehler. “They should be speaking to those of us who have been advocating for a living wage for quite some time now.

“How do we expect people to live on what is basically… the current minimum wage, its gross is over $1,900 a month. When it raises on October 31, it doesn’t meet even $2,200 a month. That means people are working full time, under 40 hours a week and they are earning $23,000 a year.”

Manitoba will have lowest minimum wage in Canada 

Manitoba has the second lowest minimum wage just ahead of Saskatchewan, which has a minimum wage of $11.81. But in October their wage will increase to $13 an hour, which will make Manitoba the lowest.

Vince Barletta, the president and CEO of Harvest Manitoba, says they are seeing historic increases in demand for food banks.

“We expect that trend to continue,” he said. “Increasing the minimum wage will help those wage earners tread water against the tide of inflation, but it’s not going to make a big dent in overall demand for food banks.”

Some say major increase could be detrimental to small businesses

Not everyone is urging the province to increase minimum wage significantly.

Kathleen Cook from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says a major increase in the minimum wage could be detrimental for small businesses.

“A lot of businesses are still struggling right now,” she said. “Almost two-thirds of small businesses in Manitoba aren’t yet back to pre-pandemic sales. Many are facing significant debt and they’re feeling squeezed by inflation too, so our number one message to the government this year is no new costs.”

Labour Minister Reg Helwer says the province will be meeting with businesses and labour groups to discuss an appropriate minimum wage before making any decisions.

“We know that we still have the predictability side of the increases is in there,” said Helwer. “This is something that we are going to be able to anticipate changes once we do those consultations.”

Rebeck says he worries what this government’s decision will be.

“I’m not confident that this government will take the necessary steps to do what is right, but we know, and I think most people agree that the right thing to say is workers that work full time should have a path out of poverty and should not have to live in it.”