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HALIFAX, N.S. —

Nova Scotians making minimum wage will see an increase of $1 per hour starting April 1.

Nova Scotia's new minimum wage will be $12.55, Labour Minister Labi Kousoulis announced Thursday, putting it in the middle of the pack for minimum wages in Canada.

“We have to balance out the needs of business as well as the needs of our employees and the $1 increase would be approximately, for a full-time employee, almost a $2,000 increase in their pocket annually,” Kousoulis said.

The minimum wage increase on April 1 will be the largest minimum wage increase in the province since 2010. The increase, which was to be 50 cents originally, was raised to $1 mostly because the partial hours rule is to be eliminated.

The partial hour rule requires employees to round up time worked for minimum wage earners. For example, if an employee works for 31 to 60 minutes, they must be paid for a full hour.

“There were a lot of companies coming forward about the partial hours,” Kousoulis said, noting the manual calculation was a burden, payroll systems couldn’t handle it and Nova Scotia is the last province to have it.

Kousoulis said one company, which he didn’t identify, received a $70,000 penalty “because they didn’t follow the (partial hour) rules and had to go back and back pay.”

“Eighty per cent of the companies we investigated were not compliant, so the disservice is to the 80 per cent of employees who were not getting what they had a right to,” Kousoulis said.

Kousoulis did admit that some workers may be making less money with the incoming changes, but estimated it would be a small percentage of people.

The inexperienced minimum wage will also be eliminated. Currently, employers are able to pay an employee who has less than three months of experience and has worked for them for less than three months an inexperienced rate.

But a $12.55 an hour minimum wage is either too much or too little an increase for some people.

Nova Scotia NDP leader Gary Burrill said the province’s minimum wage should be $15 an hour.

“We’re in a province that is the only one in Canada that has worsening child poverty. We’ve got the lowest median incomes in the whole country,” Burrill said.

“To counterpose the interest of the economy and the interest of those who need a $15 wage is, I think, a shallow and mixed-up understanding of how the economy of Nova Scotia works.”

Other critics, such as Nova Scotia director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Christine Saulnier, called for a higher minimum wage.

“Businesses that continue to pay poverty wages externalize the costs of a business model that takes a negative toll on workers’ health and ability to contribute to their potential,” Saulnier said.

On the other side of the coin, Jordi Morgan, Atlantic vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the increase is too much for small business owners.

Last April, minimum wage was raised by 50 cents to $11.55 for experienced workers and $11.05 for inexperienced workers.

“The province promised business owners it would take a gradual approach over three years,” Morgan said. “That approach of providing predictability has been thrown out the window.”

Morgan said the higher increase shifts an “immediate, unexpected and difficult-to-manage burden onto small business owners,” adding it will most likely take away the trust between the Liberals and small business owners.

Nova Scotia's new rate falls behind minimum wages in Alberta ($15 for general workers), British Columbia's ($14.60 for general workers as of June 1), Ontario ($14 for general workers), Northwest Territories ($13.46), Nunavut ($13) and Yukon ($12.71), according to Payworks Canada.

Quebec ($12.50), Prince Edward Island ($12.25 as of April 1), Manitoba ($11.65), New Brunswick ($11.50), Newfoundland and Labrador ($11.40) and Saskatchewan ($11.32) trail Nova Scotia's new minimum wage.