Minimum wage in Nova Scotia to reach $15 per hour this year

The provincial government announced Friday the minimum wage in Nova Scotia will increase to $15 per hour this year.

The current minimum wage is $13.60 per hour. It will increase to $14.50 per hour on April 1 and to $15 per hour on Oct.1.

A provincial minimum wage review committee recommended the increase in a report released earlier this year.

The increase will keep the province on pace with P.E.I. and Newfoundland, which will move to a $15 minimum wage Oct. 1.

The announcement was met with some criticism.

"This is not really a visionary way forward," said Christine Saulnier, the Nova Scotia director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Playing catch-up

Her organization has been calling for a $15 minimum wage for years. She said it's a step forward, but too little, too late during a cost-of-living crisis.

"We've been playing catch-up for quite a long time," Saulnier said. "We really need to be moving closer to $20 per hour at the minimum wage."

Labour Minister Jill Balser said the wage review committee is made up of business owners and employee advocates. She said the recommendations balance the needs of everyone involved.

Nova Scotia has also agreed to increase the minimum wage each April based on the Consumer Price Index percentage change for the previous calendar year, plus one per cent.

For example, if the Consumer Price Index is at 4 per cent on April 1, 2024, the minimum wage will increase to $15.25 per hour, based on the rate on April 1, 2023 of $14.50 per hour.

Balser said this model will help businesses better predict future increases in the minimum wage.

Saulnier said this model will help the minimum wage keep up with inflation. But she said the government needs to do more to help people make a living wage, as opposed to "just having people run in place."

Living wage

Last fall, Saulnier's organization published a report that determined the living wage in Halifax to be $23.50 per hour. The report considers a living wage as the minimum hourly wage earned in a 35-hour work week that would meet the current cost of living.

Hailie Tattrie, an organizer with Justice for Workers Nova Scotia, said increasing the minimum wage ultimately helps to improve the economy by giving people more disposable income.

"When you raise the minimum wage, that's going to give people more spending power, more money to put into their local economy, to go out to those local businesses, to go to a restaurant," she said.

The group used to be called Fight for $15, but that changed over a year ago. Tattrie said the group would now like to see the minimum wage at least at $20 per hour.