Nunavut minimum wage going to $19 an hour on Jan. 1, GN announces
Move will make territory’s minimum wage highest in Canada; minister cites need for relief from high cost of living
Justice Minister David Akeeagok announced Friday announced that Nunavut’s minimum wage will increase to $19 an hour starting in January 2024. (File photo)
Nunavut’s minimum wage will rise to $19 an hour next year from the current $16 in a move aimed to combat inflation and the high cost of living, the territorial government announced Friday.
That change — an 18 per cent raise, starting Jan. 1, 2024 — will make Nunavut’s minimum wage the highest in Canada, over $2 an hour more than the second-highest of $16.77 in Yukon.
“We recognize Nunavummiut face the highest cost of living in Canada and that during this time of increasing costs and high inflation, the financial pressure on Nunavummiut has increased,” Justice Minister David Akeeagok said in the legislative assembly.
Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster applauded the move, saying it “will go towards creating healthier homes by allowing families to be better able to afford healthy food.”
Akeeagok said the decision to raise the minimum wage was made after a survey and consultations with employees and business owners, as well as a financial and statistical review.
Noting that “food security, at the root of it, is an income issue,” Duane Wilson, vice-president of stakeholder relations for Arctic Co-op, said “steps that help improve income are generally going to have a positive effect.”
While higher minimum wages could increase the price of some products, which would impact people’s food security, Wilson said the financial situation for each of the 23 co-op stores across Nunavut is unique.
He said some might be able to absorb the increased cost without passing it on to consumers through higher prices. Others, though, might not be able to, or might have to adjust their patronage dividend program to cover the added cost.
At Arctic Co-ops, customer members receive a yearly dividend based on the store’s profits for the year.
“I would highly doubt that there would be any job losses as a result” of the higher minimum wage, Wilson said.
Meanwhile, two Ottawa university professors disagreed Friday over the impact a higher minimum wage could have.
Ian Lee, an economist and professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, said in an interview that “I have seen study after study and the majority, not 100 per cent but the majority of economists agree that minimum wage increases reduce employment.”
He said some businesses will raise prices to compensate for the expenditure. Others will not be able to raise prices for fear of losing customers, so instead will cut staff.
Raising the minimum wage is a way governments can address poverty, Lee acknowledged, but he called it a scattershot approach that should be more targeted to help those who need it without affecting others.
The federal government has the tools to do that, he said, in the form of tax rebates and other incentives.
He cited carbon tax rebates and the proposed national pharmacare program as other examples where the government is doing just that. Only people at lower income levels will be able to benefit from those.
Asked in the interview what he thought raising the minimum wage in Nunavut to $19 from $16 would lead to, Lee answered:
“Bankruptcies.”
However, retired economist and University of Ottawa professor Mario Seccareccia disputed that opinion.
In an interview, he said that contrary to popular opinion minimum wage increases do not generally lead to higher unemployment.
Seccareccia has studied the issue for decades and said that in a large Canada-wide and decades-long study, he found that in sectors with a high proportion of minimum wage workers “it did not have any statistically significant effect on reducing employment.”
In fact, he said, for the employer, improved productivity from workers who are paid more generally offsets the increased cost of paying those workers.
At the Nunavut assembly Friday, Akeeagok said the government “is also exploring options to index future minimum wage increases to a specific formula, such as the Consumer Price Index, to ensure more consistent and regular increases going forward.”
this really produces no real positive effect. its smoke and mirrors stuff. do you think retailers are’nt going to pass this increase along to their customers to maintain their return on investment? government does not pay for this. the consumer does. yippee.
U wanna trade salarys see how much your going to save after that spending and your saying high cost in Nunavut. Com on man 19.00$ is nothing living under low incomes. Person minimum 60 hours he gets around 850.00 to 900.00 somewhere minus tax and all gov’t deducted
Good starting wage, rent 60.00 month power bill 10.00 month, no water bill , no sewage bill, no property tax, no snow removal, no garbage, bill, oh yea snuff and cigarettes 30.00 pack, Pepsi 4.00 can, chips 8.00, how do we make ends meet at 1400.00 biweekly if I show up and not tired.
Have we not learned anything from Trudeau’s foolhardy approach to printing money and the crazy inflation that it has caused? This is going to throw more fuel on the fire and cause the price of everything purchased in Nunavut will go up even more.
It’s almost like there was a global pandemic that required an extraordinary response from the government including tons of spending.
Got some advice for this genius. By raising minimum raise by this much. It will increase the cost of everything. Labor costs are a big part of every business. Those extra costs are then passed on to the consumer. You are in fact creating more inflation. The cost of everything from airline tickets to a bag of Doritos will increase.
This idea had to have come from a graduate. Of the esteemed business school of ARCTIC COLLEGE.
Why doesn’t the GN increase the amount of social assistance. .
Give more tax breaks to the working poor. Implement policies that lower costs of goods and services.
we need more people Working and NOT choosing Social Assistance instead. and the way to do that is to make it worth working (even at minimum wage) over not working and getting social Assistance.
As for the increasing cost of products, i hope the corps dont raise the price of items. the increase of $3/hr is $22.5 more a day (7.5hrs) and if you are so small that puts your business under then perhaps you were already not actually charging what needed to be charged (I dont think any of the major stores are like this).
If you have 10 people working during a shift that is only $225 more. and Really the Northern and Coops should be paying more then minimum wage. If a business sells more then $5K in the day that is only 5%.
It’s challenging to justify working a full-time job at minimum wage when it results in a mere $4,000 annual increase over social assistance benefits. We must reconsider the incentives we provide to ensure that employment is a clearly advantageous choice.
But let’s do a small comparison for a wage of $28 an hour vs SA
For someone w/ 3 dependents making a gross annual income: $60,000
Canada Child Benefit: $12,394.32
Minus federal tax: $9,539.17
Minus annual rent: $7,064.04
Total Take-home (excluding provincial/territorial taxes) = $72,394 – $9,539.17 – $7,064.04 = $55,790.96
(this also leaves out the 2% GN Payroll tax and assumes no other deductions)
For someone w/3 dependents on Social Assistance: $18,522
Canada Child Benefit: $17,709
Minus Annual Rent: -$720
Total Take-home: $35,551
Why would someone commit to a 37.5-hour workweek for a mere $20,000 annual increase in earnings?
To foster a culture of work, we must reevaluate the rent scale and establish equitable conditions that encourage employment. This approach should motivate capable individuals to enter the workforce rather than unduly benefit those who do not work.
Having a job that is $28/hrs (if your math is accurate) gives an additional $20,000 a year. That is a skidoo for the year that your family can use (if you are already use to living off $35K a year anyway). then the following year you still have the skidoo, and now you can buy a honda, a skidoo and honda can last more then a few years, so the following year you can also possibly by a small boat. And using the skidoo, honda and boat you can gather and transport wood collected from the dump to on the land to build a cabin.
$20K a year extra is a lot of money to increase your families wellbeing. and if you had another person also working full time (or part time even) that also adds to it.
It’s Social assistance minus child tax, Gst and any other small earnings, income support workers force clients to show them their bank accounts and even listens to the bingo games and say I heard you won a bingo game.
Absolutely listen to the bingo games! Omg, income support is meant to put food on the table , food in babies mouths, diapers on their buts and clothes on your back, NOT to literally gamble tax payers money away. Shake you head! Holy entitlement?
How many jobs in Nunavut currently pay less than $19 per hour? Not very many. But those few are the only ones that will be affected by this increase in the minimum wage.
Get class 3 air breaks and you’ll make over 30 bucks an hour
Teaching people how to properly manage their money will go further then just raising the minimum wage. I see those making a 100k a year struggling as much as someone making 40k because of bad money management. Especially when I see people prioritize buying cigarettes over food for their kids.
I have a buddy , who s a heavy equiptment operator , makes 120k a yrs , bumming 20 buck hear 40 bucks there for smokes and beer.
Revolution!
But of course everyone still complain it can’t support bad habits and unhealthy junk food. My priorities are my kids health and mine. I try to watch what me and my kids eat. Nunavut needs to create more jobs. They need more interesting stuff like theater arcade bowling alleys track and field. And such. But all your guys priorities are cigarettes and pop and chips. No wonder this territory can’t get anywhere. Dead place. I hope the government takes a second to see they need to create more jobs. I do my two cents worth. And many profit from it. One business can create so much. You guys gotta learn, re evaluate. Think.
Start one.
I agree, start one then. Down south it isn’t the government who “creates” all these recreational jobs. Bowling alleys and movie theatres are bought and run by regular people.
Simple math, Canada needs to cut the costs of tobacco, alcohol and drugs (pharmaceutical) by half or less, these are causing poverty, nobody will increase their smoking or drinking both have limits, less stress and anxiety will feed more and increase better health.
This is an unpopular opinion but a great one.