Manitobans worried minimum wage increase won’t be enough

The provincial government announced they will be increasing the minimum wage to $15.30 later this year, but some Manitobans say it still won’t be enough to make ends meet.

“It’s a balance between ensuring Manitobans have a wage where they can lead a good quality of life and they can afford the things they need, and inflation has made that considerably more difficult,” said Elisabeth Saftiuk, vice-president of policy & government relations for the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

The announcement came from Minister Jon Reyes on Wednesday, stating that Manitoba will see two wage increases this year.

One in April and a slightly larger one in October, for a total of $1.80 increase in 2023. Right now, minimum wage in Manitoba is $13.50 an hour, the second lowest amount across Canada.

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“If you told me six years ago that the province is putting the wage up to $15.30 an hour, I would’ve been ecstatic because that was what a living wage was six years ago,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

“We’ve all been feeling the rising costs of groceries and gas, and we’re not at a living wage which means there’s still going to be people working full time that are living in poverty.”

According to the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives, a living minimum wage in 2022 for Winnipeg is $18.34 an hour. The amount is expected to increase this year due to inflation.

“The minimum wage has increased significantly over the last year as we know, three times, before the final increase right before the final increase before the provincial election and this is as much as businesses can take on right now,” said Saftiuk.

Saftiuk says due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and current inflation rates, businesses are already struggling to keep up with costs.

“Many businesses are paying over minimum wage right now because of the acute labour shortage that we’re in. This is certainly what we’re hearing when we’re traveling the province and speaking to businesses that they’ve been required to increase wages beyond simply the minimum wage.”