NDP MPP and Employment Standards Critic Cheri DiNovo is challenging the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ claim that raising the minimum wage will hurt small businesses in Ontario.

“All hard working Ontarians deserve a minimum living wage that lifts them out poverty, not one that keeps them there. The argument that raising the minimum wage will hurt small business is patently false,” said DiNovo. “Research on the minimum wage demonstrates that people with moderate incomes will spend their wages in their communities and that’s good for the local economy.”

Almost all economists agree that failing to stimulate a depressed economy will only result in a longer and deeper recession. One way to do this would be for the provincial government to implement a “living wage.” As DiNovo’s $10 Minimum Wage Act sought to accomplish in 2006, a living wage would raise the minimum wage immediately to $10.25 per hour, indexing it to the Consumer Price Index each year thereafter.

The demand for a living wage comes from a variety of sources across the political spectrum. The federal Conservative government’s recent budget was predicated on protecting high paying jobs in order to stimulate the economy. In his review of federal labour standards in 2006, Harry Arthurs, former dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, recommended that the federal minimum wage should be benchmarked to a standard above poverty.

“What is clear is that workers earning the current minimum wage of $8.75 per hour are already working below the poverty line. According to the most recent data, over 60 per cent of these workers are women. Freezing the minimum wage will only hurt Ontario’s families,” said DiNovo.

“In this regard, raising the minimum wage is good for families, communities and small businesses,” concluded DiNovo.