Sask. minimum wage going up to $14 on Sunday

Saskatchewan’s lowest-earning workers will be making a little bit more after this weekend.

The increase – by $1 per hour to $14 per hour – takes effect Sunday as part of a commitment by the provincial government to incrementally raise Saskatchewan’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024.

The minimum wage was raised to $13 on Oct. 1, 2022, and is set to jump by another dollar on Oct. 1, 2024, bringing the province to its $15-per-hour goal.

The minimum wage has jumped by almost 89 per cent since 2007 when it sat at $7.95 per hour, the provincial government noted.

According to the Retail Council of Canada, the highest minimum wage in the country is found in the Yukon ($16.77), followed by B.C. ($16.75), the Northwest Territories ($16.05) and Nunavut ($16).

Saskatchewan’s coming increase will move the province from the lowest minimum wage in the nation into second-last place ahead of Prince Edward Island, where the minimum wage sits at $13.70 per hour.

Don McMorris, Saskatchewan’s minister for labour relations, said the move will support the province’s lowest earners.

“Saskatchewan has a strong, growing economy and increasing the minimum wage is just one of many mechanisms used to take care of Saskatchewan workers and create more prosperity for everyone,” McMorris said in a statement.

“Other supports to assist minimum wage earners include the basic personal tax exemption, child tax credit and the Saskatchewan Low-Income Tax Credit.”

But while Saskatchewan’s minimum wage is on its way to $15 per hour, the NDP opposition has said that increase is too little and coming too late. The NDP even campaigned on hiking the minimum to $15 per hour during the 2020 election.

In addition to the minimum wage hike, the provincial government pointed to Saskatchewan’s low personal taxes as a way of supporting low earners.

“Since 2007, the provincial personal income tax exemptions have removed more than 112,000 people from the province’s income tax roll,” the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety said in a statement.

“This has resulted in over $760 million in annual income tax savings for Saskatchewan people.”