Hike just an April Fool’s joke?
In January, the Nova Scotia Minimum Wage Review Committee came out with its annual report. The committee recommends that by April 1, the minimum wage be increased to $13.35, and that by Oct. 1, it be raised to $13.60 an hour. It won't be until April 1, 2024, that the minimum wage hits $15 an hour.
recommendations Each of these has been approved by the Houston government.
According to the Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) 2021 Report, which came out a mere month before the minimum-wage review report, the highest living wage in the province — and living wage represents the lowest possible hourly rate of pay to allow people to meet their basic needs — is $22.05, in Halifax. The lowest is $18.45 in Cape Breton Regional Municipality. All calculated living wages across the province are well above the current minimum wage rate of $12.95 per hour, leaving many to struggle.
The proposed $15 minimum wage for 2024 is still an inadequate amount, especially since the cost of living is sure to go up in the next two years. The proposed increases are, frankly, pathetic.
It's worth noting the minimum-wage committee uses the low-income cut-off to calculate its recommended minimum wages, which is far less detailed than the market basket measures approached used by the CCPA, which offers a more realistic picture of the cost of living.
You'd think the review committee would be in support of those who make minimum wage, but instead they are pushing for poverty wages.
Unless the members of the committee are making minimum wage themselves — or have ever had to subsist on that — how can they understand having to make a decision between the astronomical cost of housing and affording healthy food? As the CCPA report, Living Wages in Nova Scotia 2021, notes: “Workers are left living to work instead of working to live.”
It is clear from the committee's lowball recommendations that the reality of minimumwage workers is far from their sphere of reality. Minimumwage workers deserve to have true representation. They deserve to have someone fight for what they need and deserve.