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A minimum wage hike in the middle of a prolonged economic shutdown? Quebec business groups, predictably, aren’t thrilled.

Labour minister Jean Boulet confirmed on Wednesday that the province’s minimum hourly wage would climb by 60 cents to $13.10 starting May 1. More than 409,000 workers will benefit from the move, he said.

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At 4.8 per cent, the increase represents more than double the rate of inflation in Quebec.

“The timing isn’t great,” François Vincent, Quebec vice-president at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, told the Montreal Gazette in an interview Wednesday. “A lot of small businesses don’t even know if they’ll survive. Many had trouble paying the rent in April, and now they’re trying to see how they can pay it in May.”

With Quebec having lost 264,000 jobs in March as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, “perhaps the government could have pushed this back by a few months,” said Michel Leblanc, head of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. “Many smaller companies already have cash flow problems. Higher labour costs could make them reassess their plans to rehire when this is over.”