Recommended minimum wage increase doesn’t go far enough

HALIFAX -- NDP Leader Gary Burrill made the following statement in response to today’s report from the Nova Scotia Minimum Wage Review Committee:

“The growing consensus in Canada is that a $15 minimum wage is necessary to ensure people have enough money to put food on the table and heat their homes. Unfortunately, under the increases proposed today, we will be nowhere near that number even by 2021. It’s absurd that under this plan, people making minimum wage in Nova Scotia will make less in three years than workers in Ontario, Alberta, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories are making today. Our economy cannot succeed without the improved purchasing power that a $15 minimum wage would provide.”

The NDP introduced legislation this fall that would see Nova Scotia’s minimum wage increase to $15 by 2020. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the minimum wage would only be $12.10 by 2020. Nova Scotia has the lowest minimum wage of any province or territory in Canada.

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