Higher minimum wage meant more full-time jobs: Ontario NDP Jobs critic

QUEEN’S PARK — Catherine Fife, Ontario NDP Employment and Jobs critic, released the following statement in response to labour market commentary from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO):

“The FAO’s labour market commentary shows that increasing Ontario’s minimum wage to $14 an hour meant higher wages and more full-time jobs. Women in particular benefited from last year’s wage increase as women’s wage gains outpaced men’s wage gains, chipping two cents off the gender pay gap.

Instead of building on these hard-fought gains, Doug Ford is making life harder for the people who work for a living. He’s cancelled a plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and is taking Ontario backwards by undoing gains in full-time positions. Monthly Labour Force Surveys have shown that under the Ford government, new job creation has skewed to part-time positions. Too many Ontarians are already forced to worry about making ends meet and go without benefits or job security. We need more full-time jobs.

The people who work for a living in the province deserve better than to see their hard-fought gains slip away. The Liberal choice to delay minimum wage increases for years, then use the $15 wage as an election bargaining chip, let Ontarians down. Doug Ford is making things worse for working folks. That’s why Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP will continue fighting for a $15 minimum wage and calling for targeted investments that create good, full-time jobs.”