Ontario wants your opinion on its $15 minimum wage proposal

The province wants your input on its decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Today, MPPs will be starting a two-week consultation on the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act and will be travelling to 10 communities in the province to engage with residents and business owners about what they think about the minimum wage increase.

Through a broad, inclusive consultation process, Ontario wants to ensure the proposed changes give all workers the opportunity to succeed, according to the province.

In May, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that the minimum wage would be increasing from $11.40 to $15.

She said the government would be moving ahead with a landmark package measures including:

Raising Ontario’s minimum wage to $14 per hour on January 1, 2018, and then to $15 on January 1, 2019, followed by annual increases at the rate of inflation
Mandating equal pay for part-time, temporary, casual and seasonal employees doing the same job as full-time employees; and equal pay for temporary help agency employees doing the same job as permanent employees at the agencies’ client companies
Expanding personal emergency leave to include an across-the-board minimum of at least two paid days per year for all workers
Bringing Ontario’s vacation time into line with the national average by ensuring at least three weeks’ vacation after five years with a company
Making employee scheduling fairer, including requiring employees to be paid for three hours of work if their shift is cancelled within 48 hours of its scheduled start time.

MPPs will hold consultation sessions in Kingston, Ottawa, North Bay, and Thunder Bay. Next week they will travel to Hamilton, London, Kitchener, Niagara Falls, and end in Toronto on July 21, 2017. All the dates and locations of the committee hearings are available on the Ontario Legislature website.

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