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22 Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN Phone: 905-337-5560 Fax: 905-337-5571 e-mail: ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com A few more cents in minimum wage pot By Tim Foran OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Angela Douridas, a 55-year-old server, is not jumping for joy about the 65 cents per hour extra she'll be getting starting March 31, when the Province raises minimum wages. But she's also not looking a gift horse in the mouth. "They're getting better anyways," she said of her hourly wages, which will rise to $8.90 at the end of this month. "A few years ago, it was only $6.75." For the seventh year in a row, the Province has announced it will 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, which is a fulfilment of a promise outlined in 2007, will push the annual salary for fulltime 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 Cutoff (LICO) threshold compiled by Statistics Canada, sometimes referred to as the poverty line, which was $18,946 in 2008. But it won't mean such workers will be ineligible for support in Halton, one of Canada's wealthiest and more expensive jurisdictions. Theoretically, minimum wage workers would still be eligible for public housing through Halton Region, according to Joanne Kaczmarski, manager of housing programs for the Region. That's because they would still have to pay more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent in Halton, where the average monthly rent in 2009 was $731 for a bachelor apartment and $906 for a one-bedroom. In practice, the point is moot. The waiting list for public housing in Halton for single people or larger fam- NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER NO POT OF GOLD: Server Michelle pours coffee in Mo's Family Restaurant on Speers Road on Friday afternoon. Michelle will be receiving a raise thanks to the increase in minimum wage. ilies, who are not seniors or disabled lasts years, and the vast majority give up or take themselves off the list before their name is ever called, the Region has stated numerous times. "I have to make at least a couple hundred dollars in tips to survive," said Douridas, a mother of four grown children and grandmother of four. Originally from Greece, she now lives in Oakville. Her employer, Moe Thiyagarajah, owner of Mo's Family Restaurant in Oakville, estimates the increase in the minimum wage will set him back more than $500 a month. "Business-wise, I feel bad," he said. "Lifestyle-wise, they (the employees) deserve the money." Thiyagarajah said the costs will simply have to be passed on to consumers, meaning his $3.49 breakfast special might have to become $3.99. While some might argue Halton residents, who had an average household income of $113,000 in 2008, can afford to pay the extra two bits, raising prices is not an option for all business owners. Raj Mohan, who manages a local Subway chain with eight employees in Oakville, one of three owned by his brother, said prices are set by the head company and not by local franchisees. "It (the minimum wage increase) is going to cut from your profit," said Mohan. "I don't think any business owner is going like it." The Province states minimum wage workers are generally found in the wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food services, and agricultural sectors. Those industries accounted for 23 per cent of Halton's 38,350 businesses in 2008, according to statistics kept by the Region's economic development division. However, those same statistics show more than 60 per cent of businesses in Halton -- such as homebased consultancies or family-run stores -- have no employees. The Region also doesn't have estimates of the number of people either living or working in Halton making minimum wage, though it aims to do an employment survey this year, said John Davidson, Halton's economic development director. However, it isn't only Ontarians who will get the minimum wage hike. Seasonal agricultural workers from Mexico and the Caribbean who come to the Province and 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 farm near the border of Milton and Halton Hills 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 keep prices down because they compete 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 WellingtonHalton Hills 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. The $10.25 minimum wage is approximately $3 more than that offered in Michigan and New York, according to the U.S. Department of Labour website. It's just over $1 more than that offered in Québec and Manitoba, according to the ministries of labour websites for those provinces, though they generally implement increases later in the calendar year. "One would hope that the minimum wage is at a level that someone could live," he said, adding the best social program of all is a job.