Does raising the minimum wage = job losses? | rabble.ca

Recently Ontario has decided to raise its minimum wage from $10.25 to $11, a full 16 per cent below the poverty line.

Does increasing the minimum wage = job losses?

Happily, Ontario has some recent history to rely on in answering this question. The province raised the minimum wage four times between 2007 and 2010, from $7.75 to $10.25 an hour. According to the foes of minimum wage increases, there should have been job losses every year as a result. But in fact, year-to-year unemployment rates stayed the same or decreased in Ontario in each of those years with the exception of 2009, the year of the economic downturn.

A better example might be Québec, which raised its minimum wage for nine consecutive years between 2005 and 2013, increasing the rate from $7.45 to $10.15 during that period. Out of those nine years, unemployment increased just once — again in 2009.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Does raising the minimum wage = job losses? | rabble.ca.

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