Jean Boulet

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

The Quebec government’s announced rise in the minimum wage took effect last Thursday.

Labour Minister Jean Boulet announced the raise last January. Bringing the minimum wage up, he said at the time, will respect “businesses’ ability to pay, while allowing workers to increase their income and preserve their purchasing power.”

The wage went up from $15.75 to $16.10, a raise of 35 cents. It amounts to 2.22 percent, and will mean, Boulet said, that “workers will see an increase in their disposable income of up to $484 per year.”

Tip earners’ minimum will go up just 30 cents to an hourly rate of $12.90, an increase of 2.38 percent. That same percentage increase, the government said in January, will also apply “to workers assigned exclusively, during a pay period, to picking raspberries or strawberries. Thus, the minimum wage payable will increase to $4.78 per kilogram for raspberry picking and to $1.28 per kilogram for strawberry picking.”

This will bring Quebec’s minimum wage above some provinces, like the maritime provinces where, as of April 1 – according to the Retail Council of Canada – minimum wage is between $15.65 and $16. Ontario’s minimum wage is at $17.20, but it’s not the highest; Yukon’s minimum wage is $17.94, and Nunavut’s is $19.

Boulet noted, that “the minimum wage increases made by our government since 2019 is higher than inflation.” That’s “despite the inflationary economic context that followed the pandemic years.” n