Wage increase tough for food services

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: INFORMATION - MINISTRY OF LABOUR

The Ontario Government will be raising the general minimum wage effective October 1, 2015 from $11 to $11.25 per hour.

Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government will also be raising the minimum wages for students under 18, liquor servers, homeworkers and hunting and fishing guides effective this October.

“Our government has taken politics out of minimum wage increases while ensuring wages for Ontario workers keep pace with inflation and businesses have time to prepare for payroll changes,” Minister of Labour Kevin Flynn said. “This puts more money in people's pockets, gives our businesses predictability and helps build a more prosperous economy, while ensuring a fair society for all.”

Essex NDP MPP Taras Natyshak, who was made Critic for Economic Development and Employment, Small Business, Infrastructure on March 20, said in a press release the increase was not good enough.

His party had previously promised increasing the minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2016.

The main sectors employing minimum wage workers are accommodation and food, retail trade and agriculture.

“This is very much out of our control,” said Gary Deline, operations manager of The Out Back Shack. “There's nothing that we can do to combat this, but it is one more barrier that the hospitality or food service industry is going to have to overcome, especially with the wage increase last year, another wage increase this year and now with the province-wide smoking ban.”

Deline says the minimum wage increase will not affect the number of people he employs at the restaurant, which employs some students, or the hours of operation. He might have to increase prices, however.

“It's going to be a tough year for some of the food service operators in the city,” he said.

The Ontario government enacted legislation last year tying minimum wage increases to the Consumer Price Index — the price of living — for the province. Minimum wage increases will be published on or before April 1 and take effect on October 1.

The province's minimum wage between 1996 and 2003 was frozen at $6.85 per hour under Mike Harris' Progressive Conservatives. It increased annually between 2004 and 2010 under Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government.

The minimum wage was last increased in June 2014 from $10.25 to $11 per hour.