Only seven months after Ontario’s minimum wage was increased to $14/h, the business lobby’s grim job loss predictions have been demolished by reality. Over the last 12 months Ontario has added over 182,000 jobs, accounting for some 74 percent of all job growth in the country during that same period. Since February, a month after the minimum wage increased by over 20 percent, over 130,000 jobs have been added. The unemployment rate has hit an 18-year low.
If there was anything resembling accountability, let alone justice in our society, many members of the business community, the media and politicians would face a reckoning.
A year ago, Ontarians were subjected to months of fearmongering about the economic dangers of Bill 148 that would raise the minimum wage from $11.60 to $14/h in 2018 and to $15/h in 2019, introduce paid emergency leave sick days, and strengthen employment standards for all workers. With Bill 148, the big business lobby proclaimed, Ontario would be closed for business.
Minimum wage, maximum fearmongering
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