Reporter: Leslie Armstrong-Payne
Minimum wage will be increasing by 75 cents per hour in Ontario as of June 1, 2014 according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL).
It is going up to $11 per hour from $10.25 this spring and it will move with inflation from then on.
Peter Stasiuk teaches Marketing and Economics in the Durham College School of Business.
“In other words,” he said, “there will not be any more real increase in the minimum wage.”
A recent survey found that 94 per cent of students are looking forward to the increase; the survey was conducted using a small sample of Durham College and UOIT students.
Just under one third of the survey respondents work at minimum wage jobs, while another 35 per cent are not currently employed.
Working wages that are close to minimum wage could be affected by a large increase, according to Stasuik, but this increase is likely not enough to push up other wages in this ballpark.
