Effective today minimum wage is $11.32 in Saskatchewan.
The .26 cent raise is not enough to move Saskatchewan out of the basement however when it comes to the lowest payable wage in the country.
Manitoba is the second lowest at $11.32 an hour, followed by Newfoundland and Labrador at $11.40 per hour.
Related:
The Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry says this raise is not enough to help low income workers.
Spokesperson Peter Gilmer says this raise shows that the indexing process is indexing poverty and the hurtful practices maintaining the lowest minimum wage in the country. “What we have been calling for is a minimum wage of $15 so we would be competing for the highest minimum wage in the country, as we did consistently through the 1970’s, instead of being at the bottom of the pack.”
Gilmer says low income workers need a bigger raise to live. “In terms of the people we work with, we know that rents aren’t going down, utility costs aren’t going down, food costs aren’t going down, medication costs aren’t going down and childcare costs aren’t going down. So it’s becoming harder and harder to make ends meet.”
Gilmer adds that some are worried about that affecting the inflation rates, but the wages or low wage workers are a very small factor in terms of inflation costs. “The real issue is the ability for low wage workers, and in fact all low income people, to be able to meet their most basic needs which is extremely difficult and often impossible. So what we really needed here was a significant boost to the minimum wage, and as I said, $15 an hour is what we deem to be a reasonable starting point.”
(With files from Mackenzie Read)
