Ontario’s minimum wage is set to increase to $17.95 an hour come Oct. 1. The province says there are about 700,000 people in Ontario that make minimum wage. The average worker working 40 hours a week will take home more than $700 more every year. Matheus Lusvarghi, owner and operator of smoothy shop Hyper Barrie on Dunlop Street, has two part-time staff. Like many small business owners, he is just receiving word the province’s plan to increase minimum wage. “Obviously I value my team, right? So, I’ll be paying them the rightful minimum wage when it comes October and I’ll just have to keep looking at our pricing and make sure everything is still sustainable,” says Lusvarshi. Lusvarshi says he was hoping to hire four more staff in the coming months but may have to hold off on that for the time being. The province says the increase is tied to Ontario’s consumer price index at 1.9 per cent and helps ensure wages continue to reflect economic conditions. Many people feel the increase still falls short for many. “There is still no place in the province where you can work a minimum wage job full-time and still pay all your bills,” says Craig Pickthorne with the Ontario Living Wage Network. Pickthorne says even with the increase, minimum wage earners in Barrie are still $6.65 an hour short of affording life. “It works out to $230-plus a week that you are short in being able to pay your bills if you are working a minimum wage job, so yes, the time is now,” says Pickthorne. The planned increase is expected to take effect Oct. 1.
