NDP legislation looks to increase minimum wage
Posted May 10, 2016 02:40:55 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – The provincial NDP tabled legislation Tuesday in an effort to increase minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The plan outlined in the motion would see minimum wage increase incrementally over the next three years, with the boost coming on January 1. Wages would increase to $11.70 in 2017, $13.35 in 2018 and then $15 in 2019.
Nova Scotia NDP Leader Gary Burrill said the current minimum of $10.70 is not enough.
“The low level of wages mean that a lot of people – by going to work – are not able to lift themselves out of poverty, and we can’t run a coherent economy or society this way,” he said.
Burrill said increasing the minimum wage will be good for businesses as well, and give the economy a boost.
Burrill said economic stagnation happnes “to a great extent because consumer demand is inadequate,” he said. “So what makes consumer demand inadequate? Simply that people do not have enough money.”
A common argument against increasing minimum wage is the thought that businesses will in turn raise the price of goods to offset the incurred cost of paying higher wages, essentially countering the intention.
To that, Burrill said there are a number of complexities and problems that could arise, “but we know that people who make the current minimum wage do not have enough to live.”
He said the NDP had no expectations that the Liberal government would actually support the motion on Tuesday, but added that as an opposition party it is important for the party to share its vision for the province.
