Federal $15/hour minimum wage comes into effect Dec. 29

“Every worker deserves dignity and honest pay for a hard day’s work,” says Federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi. “Our Government has moved forward with a $15 per hour federal minimum wage because we know that it is a powerful tool when it comes to fighting poverty and improving the well-being of lower-income families and communities as a whole.”

“Thousands of hard-working Canadians will see their incomes rise to at least $15 per hour as a result of this change, helping them with things like groceries, rent, sports or extracurricular activities for their kids,” Tassi adds.

For adult workers in Alberta, this will not make any meaningful difference as the provincial general minimum wage is already $15.

Alberta, however, also has a youth minimum wage of $13/hour for students under the age of 18. We have reached out to the provincial Ministry of Labour and Immigration for further details on how this will impact the youth wage.

B.C. and Nunavut will be the only jurisdictions to be completely unaffected by the federal wage floor as B.C.’s went up to $15.20 per hour in June, and Nunavut’s has been $16 since June 2020.

All other provinces and territories will see at least some impact on their minimum wages. The lowest in Canada is New Brunswick at $11.75/hr.

by David Opinko

Federal $15/hour minimum wage comes into effect Dec. 29

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