By the numbers: Fair wages don’t kill jobs

Ottawa – January 10, 2015 – A report released by Statistics Canada says the minimum wage in 2013 is just a penny more than in 1975, after being adjusted for inflation. Young employees, part-timers, less-educated, and workers employed in service industries, are more likely to be paid minimum wage.

• 4

Number of decades that the average of provincial minimum wages in Canada has remained unchanged in real terms.

• $10.14

The average of all provincial minimum wage rates in Canada in 2013 – about the same value as the 1975 average of minimum wage rates ($10.13 expressed in 2013 dollars).

• 1¢

Hourly minimum wage gain for Canada’s lowest paid workers over the past four decades: a single red penny. You know, that  denomination of currency we thought so useless it’s no longer issued?

• 6.7%

Percentage of all paid employees in Canada earning the minimum wage in 2013. That’s a five percent increase in the portion of minimum wage earners since 1997. Ontario and Prince Edward Island are the provinces with the highest proportion of minimum wage earners.

• $18,109

Annual average before-tax earnings for a minimum wage worker in Alberta who works 35 hours a week year-round. That’s less than the Low-Income Cut-Off (LICO). Alberta has one of the lowest minimum wages in Canada.

• 2014

The first year that every province in Canada has decided to set its minimum wage at $10 dollars an hour or more.

• 1996

The year that the Canadian federal government stopped raising the federal minimum wage. It’s been dormant for nearly two decades. As a result, it’s been up to provincial governments to set the bar for the minimum wage.

• $15

The hourly rate that the New Democratic Party says should be Canada’s federal minimum wage. They suggest raising it in increments over five years.

• $14.49

The hourly rate that the federal minimum wage would be today if it was set at 60 per cent of the average national industrial wage which, in Canada, was $24.15 an hour in 2013.

• 150

The number of American cities where fast food service workers recently walked off the job in non-violent civil disobedience as part of a grassroots effort to get their sector to pay a minimum of $15 an hour. 

• $15

The minimum wage set by Seattle’s new mayor for workers in that city. The minimum wage will rise incrementally, reaching $15 an hour for ‘Schedule A’ workers in 2017. Neat Fact: The implementation scheme grew out of an advisory committee consisting of labour, business and non-profit representatives.

• 90%

Percentage of cases in which two economists found no statistically significant relationship between a higher minimum wage and a negative labour market outcome in Canada between 1983 and 2012 – dispelling long-standing minimum wage mythology.

• 19.9%

Percentage of Ontario children living in poverty in 2012. (12.4% in 1989) 

• $23,755

The poverty line as defined by Statistics Canada’s After-Tax Low-Income Measure (LIM-AT) in 2012, for a single parent with one child 16 years old or younger.

SOURCES:The Canadian Press, 2014. "Minimum wage in 2013 same as 1975 in constant dollars: Statistics Canada." Alberta Federation of Labour, 2013. "Alberta's minimum wage remains worst in Canada." Bloomberg, 2014. "Canada shows minimum wage has minimal effect." Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), 2014. "$15 Minimum wage movement spills into Canada." CNBC, 2014. "'We're a movement now': Fast-Food workers set to strike in 150 cities." Seattle.gov - Office of the Mayor "$15 Minimum wage." Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), 2014. "Dispelling minimum wage mythology." The Toronto Star, 2014. "Ontario falling behind its own poverty reduction goals."