Ontario workers need a raise

OFL calls on government to increase minimum wage

            “When was the last time you tried to live on $6.85 an hour?” asked Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) president Wayne Samuelson. “Or how about the student minimum wage of $6.40 an hour? How can anyone pay sky-high tuition fees, pay rent, feed themselves on these wages? Students have to earn enough over the brief summer months to put themselves through school. It’s just not possible on $6.40 an hour.”

            The OFL, unions and activists have been pressuring the government to raise the minimum wage above the Ontario poverty line for single persons with an immediate increase of $1.50 per hour. The OFL contends that the minimum wage should be indexed so that when inflation rises, the minimum wage rises with it.

            The minimum wage was frozen by the Harris government in 1995. “That was 6½ years ago,” Samuelson said. “It’s time that this government gave the lowest paid workers in the province a raise, at least enough to get their wages over the poverty line.”