No joke: Nunavut’s minimum wage gets a bump April 1

Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Labour Standards Act, was passed during the fall 2015 sitting of the legislature. It legislated an increase in Nunavut’s minimum wage from $11 to $13 an hour. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Minimum wage earners in Nunavut are about to see a bump in their pay cheques April 1, when the minimum wage in the territory will increase to $13 an hour.

With that increase, Nunavut will once again have the highest minimum wage in the country.

MLAs last increased Nunavut’s minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2011 to $11 per hour, where it’s remained for the last five years.

But a report commissioned that same year by Nunavut’s anti-poverty secretariat suggested that increase didn’t offset the high cost of living in the territory.

Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Labour Standards Act, was passed during the fall 2015 sitting of the legislature as a way to better reflect the high cost of living in the territory.

The bill also allows for future increases to be legislated.

At $13 an hour, Nunavut’s minimum wage sits just ahead of the Northwest Territories, which set its minimum wage to $12.50 last year.

Most other provinces’ minimum wages range between $10 and $11 an hour; New Brunswick’s is lowest at $10.30 an hour.

For more information on minimum wage, Nunavummiut can call the Labour Standards Compliance Office at 1-867-975-6322 or toll free at 1-877-806-8402.