The head of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce is worried about the timing of a plan to raise Ontario's minimum wage.
Rakesh Naidu, chamber president and CEO, says they always will support more money going into people's pockets, as long as the employers have the ability to pay for it.
He told AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides that the province just had an increase to the minimum wage in January and he's worried another increase will put added stress on businesses, at a time when busnesses are not fully recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontario's Progressive Conservative government announced Tuesday that it plans to raise the minimum wage to $15.50 per hour as of Oct. 1.
Naidu says it is important to take care of people so that they are earning a decent wage.
"We need to tie increases to economic growth as well, and we're not seeing the economic growth happen as rapidly as we would like to see, or as rapidly that the businesses can support this kind of increase," he says.
Naidu believes the timing needs to be right for an increase.
"Rising commidity prices, supply chain disruptions, labour shortages. There is so much going on where businesses are struggling, more so the small businesses," he says. "So now we're going to add more pressure on them, there is going to be more for them to shell out at a time when they haven't recovered well."
Premier Doug Ford's government previously cancelled a 2019 minimum wage increase to $15 from $14 per hour, but then raised the wage to $15 per hour from $14.35 in January of this year.
According to a release from the Ontario government, the next increase this fall, which is tied to the Consumer Price Index, means that workers earning the general minimum wage and working 40 hours per week would see their annual pay rise by $1,768. Liquor servers who work 40 hours per week would see an annual raise of $5,512.
Naidu says they really need to look at whether the economic growth has happened enough for us to pass on the burden to businesses.
"We're not yet there. A $15 increase in January was a big jump and I think we should have stayed at this for some time," he says."At least until we are in a place where we are much more stable, the economy is stablized, where we can see that the pricing has stablizied and inflation is lower. Because Inflation is effecting businesses as well."
Other provincial parties are also making promises to boost the minimum wage if elected.
The Opposition New Democrats have said they will raise the minimum wage to $16 as of Oct. 1 if elected to form government, and bring the wage to $20 per hour in 2026.
The Liberals are promising a wage increase to $16 per hour by Jan. 1, 2023 if they are elected.