A $15.hour minimum wage is coming to Ontario by 2019, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced in a live Facebook broadcast this morning.
The minimum wage is currently $11.40 an hour.
The minimum wage hike will be phased in over about 18 months. The wage will increase to $14/hour on Jan.1, 2018, with a $1 increase taking effect a year later, on Jan. 1, 2019.
Among the new rules announced this morning are a number of new provisions for workers.
“We need to make sure our workers are treated fairly,” Wynne said this morning.
As part of those provisions:
- Part-time workers will be paid the same wage as full-time workers doing the same job;
- All workers will receive 10 personal emergency leave days a year, at least two of which must be paid;
- If an employer cancels a shift with less than 48 hours notice, the worker who lost the shift is entitled to three hours of pay;*
- Minimum vacation entitlement rises to three weeks a year after five years working for the same employer.
*An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated an employer had to give 48 days notice to cancel a shift. That has been corrected.
