Ontario raises minimum wage to $16.55

October 5, 2023 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Province has raised the minimum wage to $16.55 as of October 1, 2023.

David Puccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills, issued a statement, saying, “Starting Sunday, October 1, Ontario’s minimum wage will increase from $15.50 to $16.55 per hour, helping more than 900,000 hard-working men and women across our province earn more take-home pay for themselves and their families.”

The 6.8 per cent raise means up to $2,200 more annually for someone working full-time, bringing Ontario’s minimum wage to one of the highest in the country.

“Our government is continuing to deliver steady and predictable annual increases, helping families offset the rising cost of living while also providing certainty to businesses by announcing this increase six months in advance,” the statement read. “Minimum wage jobs should be for the start of a worker’s career, not the end. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we are giving workers a hand up to even better jobs and bigger paycheques.”

Earlier in the week, the government passed the Working for Workers Act, 2023.

“For those who think health and safety is just the cost of doing business, we passed the highest health and safety fines in the country, along with new penalties for those who try to abuse vulnerable temporary foreign works by withholding their passport or work permit,” Minister Puccini said.

Ontario is the first province in Canada to ban unfair or discriminatory Canadian work experience requirements in more than 30 regulated professions and trades to help newcomers work in the fields they trained for.

The Act also makes job-protected leave for military reservists the most flexible and comprehensive in all of Canada.

Minister Puccini said that in the coming months, he will be introducing more legislation as part of a plan to make Ontario the best place in the world to “live, work, and raise a family.”