Ontario’s minimum wage to increase to $16.55 an hour on October 1, 2023
April 5, 2023The Ontario government announced on March 31, 2023, that the province’s general minimum wage will increase from $15.50/hr to $16.55/hr on October 1, 2023.
RCC’s stance on the minimum wage has long been that increases should be predictable, instead of driven by political whim. We’ve asked in many jurisdictions that are they indexed annually by CPI inflation. In Ontario, our minimum wage is indexed to CPI inflation.
As members know, last year saw an unprecedently high inflationary environment. Minimum wage in Ontario is calculated using Statistics Canada’s Ontario all-items CPI index, based on the increase from March to March – this year, that inflationary figure represents an increase of 6.8%.
This means the general minimum wage will increase a $1.05 an hour to $16.55. For students under 18, the minimum wage rises from $14.60 an hour to $15.60 an hour.
Finally, Ontario harmonized the minimum wage for liquor servers with the general minimum wage last year – there continues to be no unique minimum wage here as a result.
Click here for RCC’s page with all Canadian minimum wages.
For more information, please contact:
Sebastian Prins
Director, Government Relations (Ontario)
sprins@retailcouncil.org
416 467-3759
