HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s premier says he hopes the Atlantic provinces can land on a common minimum wage as early as next spring — but he maintains the goal will not be $15 an hour.<\/p>\n
Stephen McNeil said Tuesday talks are continuing with his fellow Atlantic premiers, and they will also have to find a mechanism to help a common minimum wage keep pace with inflation.<\/p>\n
“We are working with them to try to say, where is the right spot here?” said McNeil, who added the private sector would also have to be involved.<\/p>\n
“We know the biggest change would be in Nova Scotia and I’m obviously prepared to entertain that conversation because I brought this issue to the table.”<\/p>\n
Currently Nova Scotia has the region’s lowest minimum wage — a 15-cent increase on Sunday brought the rate to $11 per hour.<\/p>\n
Newfoundland and Labrador’s minimum wage also went up by 15 cents on Sunday to $11.15, while New Brunswick’s wage went up by a quarter to $11.25. Prince Edward Island’s minimum wage remains the highest in Atlantic Canada, increasing by 30 cents to $11.55 per hour.<\/p>\n
Nova Scotia’s NDP is calling for a $15 minimum wage — such as announced in Ontario and Alberta — and has introduced a bill that would see the rate gradually implemented over a three-year period.<\/p>\n
Alberta’s minimum wage will reach $15 later this year, while Ontario will hit the mark on Jan. 1, 2019.<\/p>\n
Leader Gary Burrill said the NDP bill’s three-year wait time would give businesses time to adjust, while giving workers a more significant boost.<\/p>\n
“The evidence that I have seen is that jobs are in fact increased because there is economic activity increased and because people have a little bit of spare money, which on $11 an hour you never have.”<\/p>\n
But McNeil says he believes that would mean fewer hours for workers. He says the province can do more to help lower-income earners through such measures as tax cuts and universal pre-primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s premier says he hopes the Atlantic provinces can land on a common minimum wage as early as next spring — but he maintains the goal will not be $15 an hour. Stephen McNeil said Tuesday talks are continuing with his fellow Atlantic premiers, and they will also have to find a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3450,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}