NDP’s $15 federal minimum wage plan generates mixed reaction
Posted Sep 17, 2014 06:27:49 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NDP leader Tom Mulcair’s plan to reinstate a federal minimum wage has people on both sides of the issue talking this week.
Mulcair’s proposal would bring in a federal minimum wage at $12 per hour, rising to $15 per hour over a few years. It would only affect federally regulated industries like railways and ferries, phone services, broadcasting, banks and mining.
There hasn’t been a federal minimum wage since 1996, when the government at the time did away with the system.
Jordi Morgan at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said that government did that because the federal wage was putting too much pressure on provincial governments to raise their wages, often outside of what their industries could afford.
Morgan said that’s all Mulcair is doing here.
“To see this kind of pressure being put on salaries, I think is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of small businesses,” he said.
Morgan said Mulcair is just paying lip service to unions, who he said love to see these kinds of policies.
He added that if Mulcair is doing this to try to level the economic playing field, he’s going to fail.
“If this is something that is being done as a poverty reduction measure, then it is not a particularly effective one.”
Lana Payne with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, said this policy will do just that, and it’s desperately needed.
“I think we need to have a real discussion on minimum wage,” she said. “Rather than the hysterics that we seem to get from the CFIB.”
Payne said too many families are struggling to put food on the table, working multiple jobs to make ends meet. She said creating a federal minimum wage, and putting that pressure on the provinces to raise their wages, will close the inequality gap that is only growing in Canada.
“We’ve had a situation that’s been occurring in Canada for the past 20-years or so in which inequality is really deepening,” she said. “And part of the challenge is how particularly low-paid workers are getting left behind.”
Payne said the gradual rise of the wage would make it easier for businesses to cope with the change.
Morgan said all in all, he doesn’t see the policy making much difference.
