Minimum wage workers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan will soon receive a modest raise.
As of Oct. 1, the provincial threshold for Saskatchewan’s minimum wage will increase from $10.96 an hour to $11.06 an hour. Announced on June 15, it is the tenth time the provincial government has increased the minimum wage since 2007. Each year, the Saskatchewan government examines the minimum wage, comparing it to the provincial consumer price index for the previous year.
A person working at the new minimum wage in Saskatchewan on a 40-hour workweek and 52 paid weeks each year will make a total of $23,004.80 per year – an increase of $208 a year.
Manitoba’s minimum wage is barely higher than Saskatchewan, at $11.15 an hour for most jobs. That wage is slated for a 20 cent increase on Oct. 1, taking it to $11.35 total.
A Manitoba worker with a 40-hour workweek and 52 paid weeks each year will make $23,608 a year with the new minimum wage. In comparison, the previous wage would have meant the same worker would make $23,192 in a year, a decrease of $416.
Ontario currently has the highest minimum wage in Canada at $14 an hour, followed by Alberta’s $13.60 an hour.
According to a 2017 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the wage deemed a “living wage” in Winnipeg – the amount necessary for a family of four with two parents to raise children and avoid poverty – is $14.54 an hour. In Thompson, a similar living wage was considered to be $15.28 an hour – just short of $32,000 a year.
