On October 1st, 2021, Ontario’s minimum wage goes up by 10 cents. This raise is a result of the yearly change to the minimum wage to keep up with the cost of living. It’s only happening because workers organized seven years ago to make sure the minimum wage gets reviewed each year and goes up by the rate of inflation! If you make minimum wage, take a close look at your paycheque after Friday, October 1st to make sure it reflects this change.
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The general minimum wage goes up from $14.25 to $14.35. For those under 18 years of age and working 28 hours a week or less, the student minimum wage goes up from $13.40 to $13.50. The liquor server minimum wage goes up from $12.45 to $12.55. If your pay stub from a minimum wage job doesn’t show a 10-cent increase beginning October 1st, please call the Workers’ Action Centre at 416-531-0778 if you need support getting your employer to pay up.
Ten cents is clearly not enough! For many of us, this is the only time we get a raise – though prices always continue to rise no matter what. With grocery prices having gone up during the pandemic, we can all agree that 10 cents just isn’t going to help us pay the bills. Wages have fallen far below the cost of living and Premier Ford’s cancellation of Ontario’s $15 minimum wage back in January 2019 didn’t help.
It’s crucial that we fight for a minimum wage that will bring us out of poverty or else workers will fall further and further behind. Join the Justice for Workers campaign to help restore the wages we’ve lost, win a $20 minimum wage we can live on, and get rid of subminimum wages for students, liquor servers, farmworkers and others. Let’s keep lifting our voices together to demand poverty-free wages and protections for all workers!