88,000 Jobs Lost In Canada In January After New Minimum Wage

[Economy 52,842]

10 hours ago, Luc said:

What was the minimum wage previously? Because right now the 'consensus' on minimum wage and unemployment seems to be that small (about 10%) increases don't affect total unemployment while too big increases (Seattle: $3 increase in 9 months) do have negative side effects. Small increases should lead to a job loss for jobs under the new minimum wage and a just as big job gain for jobs just above the minimum wage, but maybe that takes longer.

 

See 

the research results of a meta-study compiling the results of 137 studies on minimum wage hikes' influence on unemployment. 

In Ontario it was $11.40/h before January now it's $14/h. So that's an increase of $2.60... It's going up again in 2019 to $15/h

 

Another Province (Alberta) is raising theirs to $15/h this year but theirs didn't take effect yet so it wouldn't have an impact

 

Also the problem I have with those graphs is that it strips out everything else going on in economy and makes it appear as if minimum wage alone made the trend

 

I also believe the timing of minimum wage hikes may also have an impact. For example in the US with a tight labor market right now, an increase would be good because anyone who looses a job could find another one more easily and as a result every minimum wage worker would make more rather than having more people just unemployed

 

Canada's unemployment right now is 5.9% (4.9% by US measures). It's a good time for minimum wage hikes. I think Ontario's was too sudden tho