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In Ontario, the January 2018 increase bumped the ratio of the minimum wage from 43 per cent of the average hourly wage to 51 per cent, far above the 45-per-cent threshold that limits the effects on employment. It is therefore not surprising to find that the employment rate among workers between 15 and 24 years of age, which had been trending upward for quite some time, fell when the minimum-wage law was adopted in November 2017. Thus, over 56,000 workers aged 15 to 24 lost their jobs between the law’s adoption and October 2018.

Furthermore, between the law’s adoption and September 2018, there has been a 5.6-per-cent increase in the prices of meals in restaurants, a sector in which nearly 70 per cent of workers earned less than $15 an hour before adoption. This price increase is over three times greater than that observed in the other provinces over the same period.

Finally, we can also expect the impacts of the minimum wage hike to have been greater in rural regions, where the average wage is generally lower. Workers who live there are thus more at risk of losing their jobs, or of having their hours or their benefits cut.

Cancelling the planned January 2019 increase was the right decision

While it may seem paradoxical, practically all studies show that a substantial increase in the minimum wage does not reduce poverty; it mostly affects people who are not in low-income situations, and it even contributes to an increase in poverty due to the jobs that it destroys.