Ontario's Minimum Wage Is Increasing In January & You Could See A Raise Of $1,350 A Year

All of Ontario's workers who make minimum wage are officially getting a raise for the new year.

In a news conference on November 2, Premier Doug Ford announced that the province's minimum wage rates will be rising to $15 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2022. This change would mean a full-time minimum wage worker could see a raise of $1,350 a year.

On top of the general minimum wage rate increasing, liquor servers' are also getting a pay bump from $12.55 an hour to $15, too.

"I've always said workers deserve to have more money in their pockets because they earned it, they've worked hard and put in long hours," Ford said in the conference. "The least the government can do is ensure we're making life more affordable for them by putting real dollars in their pocket."

Students under 18 who work an average of 28 hours a week or less while they're at school or working during a school break will receive $14.10 an hour (which is a 60 cent raise from the current $13.50 per hour.)

Homeworkers who are paid to do work in other people's homes will also see a pay raise from $15.80 an hour to $16.50 an hour. Hunting and fishing guides will also get a rate of $75 when they work less than five hours a day and $150.05 for working five hours or more.

As of October 1, Ontario's minimum wage went up by ten cents to $14.35 per hour. That means that come the new year, minimum wage workers will get a 65 cent raise.

Premier Ford had previously cancelled the $15 hourly minimum wage raise three years ago, which was a plan created by the former Liberal government that was supposed to take off in 2019.

The living wage rates for 23 regions in Ontario were recently updated, but even with the upcoming minimum wage increase, it is still well below what some Ontarians need to make in order to comfortably live in their hometowns.