New Brunswick’s second minimum wage hike of 2022 puts us on par with the Maritime provinces, for now
New Brunswick’s minimum wage went up by one dollar on Saturday, to $13.75 per hour. It’s the second increase this year, after another one dollar hike in April. The raise is a departure from the year before, in April 2021, when New Brunswick’s minimum wage went up by just 5 cents.
Janelle LeBlanc is provincial coordinator for the Common Front for Social Justice which runs campaigns around public services, pay equity, employment standards and social assistance. LeBlanc says that increase won’t seem like much for workers, relative to increases in cost of living.
“The government of New Brunswick has been saying this is a big increase, but if you consider inflation rates and the cost of living that skyrocketed this year, people are really, really struggling to make ends meet,” says LeBlanc. “There’s more people in debt this year, more people using their credit cards to buy essential items. And according to the government’s stat, there are more people working minimum wage jobs. So that means there’s more people who are low income and having trouble making ends meet.”
In a press release at the end of 2021, the province said there were 15,500 people earning less than the then-minimum wage of $11.75, and another 30,000 people earning less than $13.75 per hour. The release also stated the $2 raise in 2022 represented a 17% hike, the largest increase to New Brunswick’s minimum wage since 1980.… Continue