NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo today introduced a bill that would bring minimum wage earners to the poverty line.

The bill, entitled Raising the Minimum Wage, 2008, would immediately increase the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour with 25 cent increases over the next three years to reach $11 in 2011. The minimum wage would then be indexed to the Consumer Price Index every year thereafter.

“Although the minimum wage increased 75 cents yesterday, the reality is that you still can’t survive on $8.75 an hour,” DiNovo said at a press conference today. “All hard working Ontarians deserve a minimum living wage that lifts them out poverty, not one that keeps them there.”

DiNovo’s bill is being tabled on the same day that MPPs receive yet another pay increase of more than $3,000. In the past 16 months alone, MPPs have received three separate raises representing a total increase of more than 35 per cent.

“Last year, the McGuinty government gave themselves a hefty pay increase but refused to pass my bill to raise the minimum wage to the poverty line. Today, they maintain their track record by increasing their own wages yet again while looking the other way when it comes to the working poor,” said DiNovo.

“Is this the poverty plan that the McGuinty government calls ‘revolutionary’? What is so revolutionary about keeping hard-working minimum wage earners living in poverty? That’s not revolutionary, it’s shameful,” said DiNovo. “We need to stop paying minimum wage earners poverty wages and give them $10.25 per hour starting today.”