‘Excellent news.’
That’s how Lana Mitchell, Executive Director of Low Income People Involvement (LIPI) of Nipissing is reacting to minimum wage going up to $15 per hour on January 1, 2022, in Ontario.
“I think anything that supports people that work really hard, that generally tend to not have benefit packages and other things in place for them and are struggling to get by, the more the better,” she says. “I recognize it’ll be a bit of a challenge for businesses, but I know that the more stable your staff are, the better your business does.”
Mitchell says after the last 19 months minimum wage earners deserve a boost in pay.
“A lot of them are people that are working in places that were deemed essential, that worked straight through the pandemic especially in the beginning when none of us knew what was going on,” she says. “I think it’s about time they’re recognized and I’m glad to see it’s coming back into play because it had been postponed.”
Premier Doug Ford announced the hike in minimum wage on Tuesday morning.
