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14 Independent & Free Press,Thursday, April 1, 2010 How the minimum wage hike affects workers, employers By TIM FORAN Metroland Media Group Angela Douridas, a 55-year-old Halton waitress, is not jumping for joy about the 65 cents per hour extra she'll be getting as of yesterday (March 31), when the Province raised the minimum wage. But she's also not looking a gift horse in the mouth. "They're getting better," she said of her hourly wages, which will now rise to $8.90. "A few years ago it was only $6.75." For the seventh year in a row, the Province announced it was raising raise minimum wages for Ontarians. Employees like Douridas working in an establishment serving liquor, where tips are expected, will get $8.90 per hour, while the wage for students under 18 will rise 70 cents to $9.60 per hour. The general minimum wage will rise 75 cents to $10.25 per hour, an item that will affect many of Halton's retail and fast food restaurant workers, along with both local and foreign workers on farms in the region. The provincial increase will push the annual salary for full-time minimum wage workers over the $20,000 mark for the first time, based on a 40-hour paid work week. The increase will provide a slight cushion on top of the Low Income Cut-off (LICO) threshold compiled by Statistics Canada, sometimes referred to as a poverty line, which was and grandmother of $18,946 in 2008. But four more kids. it won't mean such Her employer, Moe workers will be inThiyagarajah, owner eligible for support of Mo's Family Resin Halton, one of taurant in Oakville, Canada's wealthiest estimates the increase and more expensive in the minimum wage jurisdictions. will set him back more Theoretically, than $500 a month. "Business-wise, minimum wage I feel bad," he said. workers would still "Lifestyle-wise, they be eligible for public (the employees) dehousing through Halton Region, ac- Bert Andrews, of Andrews Scenic Acres serve the money." Thiyagarajah said cording to Joanne and the Scotch Block Winery, says the Kaczmarski, man- minimum wage hike `is not huge money' the costs will simply ager of housing but adds business owners get caught in have to be passed on to consumers, programs for the the `cost versus price squeeze'. meaning his $3.49 Region. That's because they would still have to pay more breakfast special might have to become than 30 per cent of their gross income on $3.99. The Province states minimum wage rent in Halton, where the average monthly rent in 2009 was $731 for a bachelor workers are generally found in the wholesale and retail trade, accomodation and apartment and $906 for a one-bedroom. In practice, the point is moot. The food services, and agricultural sectors. waiting list for public housing in Halton Those industries accounted for 23 per for single people or larger families, who cent of Halton's 38,350 businesses in are not seniors or disabled lasts years, 2008, according to statistics kept by the and the vast majority give up or take Region's economic development division. However, those same statistics show themselves off the list before their name is ever called, the Region has stated nu- more than 60 per cent of businesses in Halton-- such as home-based consultanmerous times. "I have to make at least a couple hun- cies or family-run stores-- have no emdred dollars in tips to survive," said Dou- ployees. However, it isn't only Ontarians ridas, a mother of four grown children who will get the minimum wage hike. Seasonal agricultural workers from Mexico and the Caribbean who come to rural parts of Halton to work on farms and in nurseries will also benefit, as they get the general minimum wage. "I have no qualms that people need that kind of money, $10.25 is not real huge money," said Bert Andrews, owner of Andrews Scenic Acres, a Halton Hills farm that employs about 75 people at the height of the growing season. "But where we get caught is in the cost versus price squeeze." Andrews, who sells most of his produce and fruit wine through farmer's markets and at his farm, said he is in a better position as a retailer than a wholesale farmer because he can raise his prices slightly to recoup extra costs. Wholesale farmers have to try to keep prices down because they are competing with importers, said Andrews. "Minimum wages in China, Mexico and Chile are a heck of a lot less," he said. But it isn't just competition in developing countries the Province has to worry about, said Wellington-Halton Hills Conservative MPP Ted Arnott. "It's important to keep the minimum wage at a competitive level to our neighbouring jurisdictions," said Arnott, suggesting too high minimum wages could drive jobs to other provinces or nearby U.S. states where the minimum wages are lower.