“There is no consistent connection between higher minimum wages and employment levels in Canada” says a new study by the Ottawa think tank the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released on Tuesday (October 21).
The study which looked at minimum wages and employment in all ten Canadian provinces between 1983 and 2012 also found that employment levels are “overwhelmingly determined by larger macroeconomic factors.”
The study was co-authored by Jordan Brennan and Jim Standord, two CCPA research associates who are also economists with Canada’s largest private sector union UNIFOR.
In an interview with RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda, Jordan Brennan said their evidence suggests that “governments need not fear a negative employment impact” if they gradually increase the minimum wage. He also pointed out that a lot of the minimum wage employers are not small businesses, but actually big multinationals, such as fast food companies, where labour costs are a small fraction of total costs.
ListenMore information:
CCPA study – Dispelling Minimum Wage Mythology: The Minimum Wage and the Impact on Jobs in Canada, 1983–2012 – here
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