Most Manitobans earning minimum wage aren’t teens living at home but adults working for big companies and barely scraping by, say advocates pushing the province to come up with a plan for a living wage.
“People are falling behind and struggling to make ends meet, no one moreso than our low-wage workers,” Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, said at a news conference Thursday.
The organization representing unionized workers blames 2017 legislation brought in by Brian Pallister’s Tories tying minimum-wage increases to the rate of inflation, with increases to take effect Oct. 1 each year, based on the province’s Consumer Price Index. In 2017, the minimum wage rose to $11.15/hr from $11/hr.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
President of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, Kevin Rebeck: “When people work full time, they shouldn’t live in poverty.”
“Pallister’s law leaves people systemically behind; they will never close that gap,” said Rebeck, standing next to a life-size cardboard cutout of the former Progressive Conservative premier.
The PC caucus said it was unable to comment Thursday.
Someone working full time requires a wage of $19.21 an hour in order to meet the basic needs of a family of four in Winnipeg, according to Niall Harney, a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — Manitoba.
Manitoba’s minimum wage will increase 50 cents, to $15.80 an hour, on Tuesday.
Rebeck said a recent survey showed Manitobans support living-wage legislation.
“When people work full time, they shouldn’t live in poverty,” he said.
Harney and the Centre for Policy Alternatives released a report Thursday offering a detailed profile of Manitobans earning an hourly wage under $19.21 in 2023.
It found that 171,072 people — roughly one-quarter of the workforce — earned less than a living wage.
Disproportionately, they’re women (58 per cent).
Most (44 per cent) are in the prime of their working years (between the ages of 25 and 54) and hold some form of post-secondary education (61 per cent). Just 43 per cent are workers between the ages of 15 and 24. In 2021, 62 per cent of minimum-wage earners were 24 or younger, according to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey.
More than a third (36 per cent) have a child at home who is under 18 years of age.
Most — 52 per cent — work at firms with 100 or more employees.
When asked if his government would repeal the minimum-wage law, Premier Wab Kinew pointed to Tuesday’s increase and the need “to get the balance right.”
“It’s really important for us to have the backs of workers,” said the NDP leader who campaigned on improving health care and making life more affordable.
Since forming government after last fall’s election, the NDP has signed public-sector collective agreements that have delivered fair wages, and suspended the province’s 14 cent tax on a litre of gas to help make life a bit more affordable for many Manitobans, Kinew said at an unrelated news conference.
“In order for us to have the resources to be able to pay for the investments in health care that everybody wants, we need the economy to move forward in a good direction, and that means having a constructive working relationship with the world of business, as well,” he said.
Chuck Davis, president and CEO of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, said the business community relies on the certainty that the current legislation provides.
Many business owners are already paying above minimum wage just to retain workers, said Tyler Slobogian, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s prairie and northern region.
“With the current labour markets conditions, it’s hard to pay anybody at this point minimum wage because you’re not going to retain anybody,” he said Thursday.
Wage costs are the cited as the No. 1 concern for business owners, Slobogian said, citing a members survey. Governments can increase workers’ take-home pay without hurting small businesses through income tax measures such as raising the basic personal amount exemption, he said.
“Obviously, we want fair wages for employees — that’s a no-brainer,” he said. “Everybody deserves a fair wage but at what cost? This costs seems to come mostly from the business owners.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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