Gerry Byrne, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour, announced Thursday there will be increases to the minimum wage.
Effective April 1, 2017, the minimum wage will increase by 25 cents to $10.75 followed by an additional increase of 25 cents to $11 on Oct. 1, 2017.
The minister said these increases will bring the Newfoundland and Labrador minimum wage rate in line with other Atlantic provinces.
“Currently, Newfoundland and Labrador has the lowest minimum wage rate in Canada and that is not where we want workers in this province to be,” he said.
Byrnes, the owner-operator of Byrnes Shoes and Sportswear Ltd. and Stephenville Embroidery and Cresting, said the wage hike won’t affect on his businesses because he’s always paid his employees above the minimum wage.
However, he said increasing the minimum wage is hard for companies that rely on students and, just as they have in the past, many companies that must pay increased minimum wage will have to cut back hours for their employees.
Byrnes said there will likely be some of that at places like convenience stores, gas stations and possibly grocery stores and other small businesses where the profit margins are not great.
“It’s a hard go for a lot of businesses, especially with the current state of the economy,” he said.
Byrnes said with many more people ordering online today, there is a lot less revenue for local small, independent businesses, with the trend to offer fewer hours for their employees.
He said he believes government should be looking at other ways to keep people employed rather than raising the minimum wage.
“Where government should be going is putting more incentives forward for low wage earners rather than basically having incentives for people not to work,” Byrnes said.
Byrnes said there are companies that say they have to bring in foreign workers but he doesn’t believe that’s right. He said there are people around to fill the positions, but they choose not to work.
