New Brunswick to raise minimum wage by CPI on April 1, 2023

On Monday, Janurary 30, 2023, the government of New Brunswick officially announced that on April 1, 2023, the province’s minimum wage will increase by $1.00 to $14.75 per hour. This decision follows the government’s legislated commitment to adjust the minimum wage on April 1st of each year, based on the change in the province’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the previous year. In recent years, the province’s economy has grown significantly thus, the province’s CPI for 2022 was 7.3%.

RCC recognizes that a $1.00 per hour increase will be difficult to absorb for some RCC members. RCC spent years calling for the government to provide employers with predictability by legislating the use of a CPI adjustment mechanism for determining the province’s base wage. In 2019, the New Brunswick government finally legislated the CPI approach. With the exception of special minimum age adjustments made in 2022, the government has followed through with its CPI commitment.