This paper is certainly one of a number of documents served by the Secretariat into the Professional Panel on contemporary Federal Labour Standards
This paper is certainly one of a number of documents served by the Secretariat into the Professional Panel on contemporary Federal Labour Standards
Disclaimer:
As history information to stimulate the Panel’s talks. The documents try not to always mirror the views for the federal Government of Canada.
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The federal minimum wage has been pegged in the Canada Labour Code to the minimum wage rate in the province or territory in which the employee is usually employed for more than 20 years. Should this process be maintained or should a freestanding federal minimum wage be reinstated? If your rate that is freestanding become used, just how should it is set, at exactly exactly what degree and whom must be eligible for it?
Background
The minimum wage could be the cheapest wage price that a manager can lawfully spend its workers and it is a core labour standard.
The policy that is underlying for developing minimal wages differs. Governments have historically place them in position by having a view to protecting non-unionized employees, reducing the amount of low-paying jobs, relieving poverty, producing incentives working, handling inequality and stimulating development through increased need.
Minimal wages are set and modified in various methods: in legislation or laws; because of the government-of-the-day or a independent board; and predicated on inflation, normal wage prices or any other financial facets.
The very first minimum wage rates were created in Canada in the very early 20 century and used mainly to females and kids. Manitoba and British Columbia introduced minimal wage legislation in 1918 and Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan accompanied suit in 1920. Prince Edward Island had been the final province to pass minimal wage legislation addressing both women and men, which it did in 1960.
The federal minimum wage could be the minimum wage applicable to employees included in component III (Labour requirements) for the Canada Labour Code (the Code). Including employees in federally regulated companies, federal Crown corporations and particular native federal government tasks on very very First Nations reserves.
Pre-1996 approach
From 1965, whenever role III for the Code arrived into force, until 1970, the federal minimum wage ended up being specified within the Code and, at affordable essay writing the time of 1971, the Governor in Council had the authority to modify the price through legislation.
The federal minimum wage was set at $1.25 and rose to $4.00 each hour by 1986, of which point it remained unchanged for the following ten years or more. The federal rate had fallen significantly behind provincial and territorial minimum wage rates, which averaged about $5.95 per hour by the mid-1990s.
Present approach
The Code had been amended in 1996 to handle this case. In specific, modifications were made so that the minimum that is federal would adjust immediately with alterations in provincial and territorial prices, thus making certain the federal price would manage its relevance as time passes in numerous financial and social conditions in the united states.
The present approach, present in section 178 of role III associated with Code, has two important elements:
- First, the federal minimum wage is scheduled while the “minimum hourly rate fixed, every once in awhile, by or under an Act for the legislature associated with province where in fact the worker is normally used and that’s generally speaking relevant no matter career, status or work experience” Footnote 1
- 2nd, the Governor in Council has got the authority, by purchase, to: a) replace the minimal rate that is hourly is fixed pertaining to employment in a province with another price; or b) fix the very least hourly price with regards to work in a province if no such minimal hourly price happens to be fixed. Neither of those two authorities has ever been utilized
In addition, area 178 offers up situations where workers are compensated on a basis aside from a hourly price. In specific, such workers must get at the least the exact carbon copy of the minimum wage. The Minister is authorized, by purchase, to correct “a standard foundation of work to which a minimal wage on a foundation apart from time might be applied”, as well as “a minimum price of wage that into the opinion associated with Minister may be the exact carbon copy of the minimum wage”.
Present developments
There were phone telephone calls in the past few years when it comes to government to re-establish a uniform, freestanding minimum wage that is federal. Some have actually argued that it is a matter of decency (for instance Arthurs, 2006) yet others that it’s a matter of showing leadership that is federalas an example New Democratic Party movement tabled into the House of Commons in 2014).
Provincial and minimum that is territorial have actually proceeded to steadily increase. At the time of January 1, 2019, they averaged $12.23 each hour, with a reduced of $11.00 per hour in Saskatchewan and a top of $14.00 each hour in Ontario. Many provinces and regions now additionally review and/or set their prices on a daily basis and many rates are indexed to inflation.
In addition, a few provinces have recently implemented significant increases within their prices, or have actually established that they can do this. Ontario raised its minimal wage from $11.60 to $14.00 each hour on January 1, 2018. The provincial rate increased from $11.35 to $12.65 on June 1, 2018 and will increase to $14.60 on June 1, 2019 and $15.20 on June 1, 2021 in Alberta, the minimum wage rate increased from $11.60 to $15.00 per hour on October 1, 2018 and, in British Columbia.
More generally speaking, high-profile promotions to increase minimal wage prices led by labour and anti-poverty companies have actually gained energy across united states in the past few years (for example Fight for $15 and Fairness).
In addition, brand new research methodologies and findings have actually assisted to both spur renewed curiosity about the effects of minimal wages and notify the development of minimal wage-related reforms. The latter consist of city-level minimal wages in Seattle, Chicago, new york and Washington, D.C., along with the introduction of a minimum that is national in Germany in 2015 and a nationwide living wage in the United Kingdom in 2016.
Minimal wage when you look at the federally regulated sector that is private
This part offers an analysis of minimum wage and low-wage employees into the federally regulated sector that is privateFRPS), in addition to violations of this Code’s minimum wage needs.
Analysis of low-wage employees
On the basis of the 2015Federal Jurisdiction Workplace Survey (FJWS) in addition to Labour Force Survey (LFS), the Labour Program estimates that there have been 42,000 workers within the FRPS earning the minimum wage within the province by which they worked in 2017, amounting to 5% of all of the FRPS workers. This even compares to 7% of workers earning the minimum wage in Canada all together (excluding the regions, which is why data aren’t available) in 2017. Footnote 2
It really is beneficial to think about those workers making just over the present minimum wage whom could be straight suffering from the use of the uniform federal wage that is minimum. To achieve this, a wage limit of $15.00 each hour in 2017 ended up being chosen. The effect is approximately 67,000 workers making significantly less than $15.00 each hour in 2017, equal to 7% of FRPS workers. In comparison, 21% of all of the workers in Canada could be earning significantly less than $15 each hour. A far smaller share of FRPS workers would therefore be making simply over the minimum wage when compared with workers in Canada in general.
What follows is an analysis associated with circulation of the two sets of employees—current minimum wage workers and people that could be making not as much as $15 per hour—by different traits, when it comes to FRSP as well as Canada all together. Into the conversation below, the word “low-wage workers” covers both groups. Footnote 3
The provincial circulation of low-wage employees between your FRPS and Canada is approximately comparable ( dining Table 1). Around two-fifths of low-wage employees have been in Ontario. About one-fifth to one-quarter are in Quebec.