Nova Scotia minimum wage rises to $14.50 an hour

Minimum wage workers in Nova Scotia can look forward to a pay increase starting today.

The minimum wage in the province is up 90 cents to $14.50 an hour — the first of two increases announced by the government in February. The second increase in October will take the wage to $15 an hour.

The increases will keep the province in line with P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador, which will also move to a $15 minimum wage Oct. 1.

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.

New Brunswick increased its minimum wage to $14.75 an hour effective Saturday, making it the highest in Atlantic Canada.

Wage still not high enough, says labour leader

Danny Cavanagh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, said he would like to see the province move further.

"Any increase would have a positive effect," he said. "I think many people would like to see it be higher with the inflationary kind of things people are paying — higher rents, higher grocery bills, higher gas money to get back and forth to work."

Cavanagh said studies have determined that people need to earn more than $15 per hour in all parts of the province to get by.

According to Cavanagh, there has to be an increase in wages if Nova Scotia employers want to encourage people to work in their sectors and stay in the province.

Nova Scotia lags behind Alberta, which has a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Ontario is $15.50 an hour and British Columbia $15.65. Yukon's minimum wage of $16.77 an hour is the highest in the country.