A scheduled 75-cent hourly increase in Ontario’s minimum wage will go ahead as planned next month.
That won’t please the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which called Thursday on the government to scrap the plan to boost the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour on March 31.
The small-business lobby cited the faltering economy, and says the last thing its members need is another increase in the cost of doing business.
Labour Minister Peter Fonseca says the government consulted businesses before implementing a schedule to increase the minimum wage each year.
Fonseca says the Liberal government felt that was the fair way to proceed after the Conservatives froze the minimum wage for nine years.
He calls the scheduled increases “one of the cornerstones” of the government’s poverty reduction strategy.
“It will help those vulnerable workers in Ontario make a little bit more money and help them out with their quality of life,” Fonseca said.
