Ontario employees, employers squeezed amid high cost of living, minimum wage increase – Kingston | Globalnews.ca
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Some of Ontario’s lowest-income earners got a raise to start the month.
The minimum wage increased from $15.50 to $16.55 per hour, as of Oct. 1.
That represents a six per cent increase.
But whether your job pays minimum wage or more, with dramatic increases in food prices and interest rate hikes, along with rent or a mortgage, just about everyone is feeling the financial pinch.
“Honestly, I’ve bought less stuff,” Kingston resident John Liu says.
“I feel like my standards have dropped in terms of like my cooking even, to be honest, or I just kind of ration things out more.”
“I’ve even had to sell my stuff,” Kingston resident Jason Malette says.
“If my dog’s got to go to the vet, I take him to the vet.”
As employees struggle with the cost of living, the minimum wage increase can be challenging for employers, the CEO of the Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce says.
“We knew this increase was coming,” says Karen Cross,
“It’s planned every October, but it’s still tough.”
That’s the brief summary of what Cross says she’s hearing from local business owners.
“Businesses still have not fully recovered from where they were pre-pandemic,” she says.
“It’s still a struggle, but on the other side of that, we still have to think of our workers as well, who have been hit with higher costs of living.”
The Ontario Living Wage Network calculates how much a person needs to make per hour to pay bills, keep a roof over their head and buy groceries.
Last year, the Ontario Living Wage Network calculated a living wage at $19.05 in eastern Ontario.
“That raise is what economists would technically call a suppressed wage, in that their buying power goes much less than it was at the same time last year,” says Craig Pickthorne, communications co-ordinator at OLWN.
It’s a reality Kingston resident Kristie Johnson lives with.
She says she’s on the Ontario Disability Support Program and works full-time for minimum wage.
“I did get an increase in pay,” Johnson says.
But she says it’s not enough to get by.
“I am facing homelessness here in the city, and it doesn’t meet my needs,” Johnson says.
“I do need to take on another job and I will be pursuing that.”
Cross says attracting and retaining employees is a growing issue for employers.
An upcoming hiring summit has more than 40 employers signed up and roughly 400 job seekers have registered for the event this Thursday.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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