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Justification for Raising the Minimum Wage in Ontario

There exists a considerable debate on whether the Canadian government should have increased the minimum wage in Ontario. The debates followed the increase in the minimum wage since January 1, 2018, from $11.60 every hour to $14 every hour. In the contemporary society, it is nearly impossible to survive on a mere income of $11.60 an hour, particularly for individuals who are raising family. As such, a higher minimum wage would serve to help individuals living in poverty y offering better means of economic stability. What is more, raising the minimum wage would be critical to improving the possibility of people who are trying to escape poor living conditions. Additionally, by raising the minimum wage in Ontario, the Canadian government sought to potentially help boost the economy backup and lift it out of possible recession. The reason is that when people receive high wages, they will have a more likelihood of spending more money, thus leading to an increase in the revenue for the province or the nation at large. Overall, while others believe that increasing the minimum wage in Ontario would have economic repercussions, the act would serve to boost the economy, promote equality among Canadian citizens, and promote sufficient funds to improve living standards of Canadians.

The previously extremely low minimum wage in Ontario saw millions of Canadians live in poverty. Besides making an very low annual salary, workers who received the low minimum wage had to deal with the actual fiscal value provided for by this type of wage. While in the past centuries, earning a minimum wage was relatively sufficient enough to raise a single parent family of about three or four out of poverty, this has proven difficult in the contemporary world. According to (), the minimum wage was established to ensure that Canadian families were given a living wage for purposes of affording basic needs. However, in the present day, such a low minimum wage cannot offer an efficient living wage but rather a mere wage that each Canadian citizen is entitled to earn.

Admittedly, just like with any significant policy issue, there will always be a clash in peoples’ opinions, which in turn create heated debates on the side that offers the best solution. Similarly, the debate around whether it was justified for the Canadian government to increase the minimum wage in Ontario is no different. Several sceptics have argued that increasing the minimum wage would destroy the present Canadian economy rather than improving it. In view of these sceptics, an increase in the minimum wage would lead to more unemployment while also causing an increase in the cost of living. The argument that opponents of raising the minimum wage raise involving increased unemployment, however, is often based on the assumption that employers will be compelled to reduce staff sizes for purposes of compensating for the higher wages they pay employees. However, contrary to this belief, research findings have established that modest increase in the minimum wage has negligible or no effect at all on the rate of unemployment. Thus, the rate of employment needs to be considered insignificant when determining whether the minimum wage ought to be increased or not.

Pessimistic views also contend that raising the minimum wage will lead to an increase in the cost of living, and hence fail to reduce poverty. Considering the manner in which the Canadian welfare programs have been working, an increase in the minimum wage is likely to lead to people being cut off from receiving government assistance. The reason is that usually, the amount that individuals receive from the government is often dependent on their individual levels of incomes. The implication is that at the very same rate individuals earn an extra wage, there will be a decrease in their level of assistance. This argument has been supported by a research conducted by (), which establishes that the minimum wage has completely no direct effect on poverty. This implies that raising the minimum wage in Ontario will not cause an increase in poverty levels.

Increasing the minimum wage in Ontario will also help reduce gender wage gap in Canada. The reason is that several factors have been attributed to gender wage gap incanada. Among these factors is the low minimum wage. It has been established that in middle-skill careers, workers in jobs that are majorly done by women receive only 65 percent of those in jobs that are predominantly done by men. Undeniably, women’s earnings are central to the economic well-being of their families. However, whether the gender wage gap is determined based on hourly, annual, or weekly earnings, both across and within occupations, the median earnings of women are lower than those of men. In view of (), if efforts towards closing the existing gender wage gap remain at the same pace then equal pay for men and woman may hardly be achieved. Research findings have indicated that whether women in Canada work in professions that are dominated by women, those dominated by men, or those incorporating both men and women, on average, women still earn less income than men. For instance, even in nursing and teaching careers that are heavily professionalized occupations having a robust union, women’s income are still below those of men. Increasing the minimum wage would hence help address this problem

Overall, in the contemporary Canadian society, a $11.60 minimum wage every hour does not adequately yield enough finance for a person to afford a basic standard of living. Essentially, it does not even accommodate basic needs deserved by everyone in life. As such, an increase in the minimum wage in Ontario would serve to improve the lives of those living in poverty and conceivably boost the entire Canadian economy by boosting revenues since individuals would be in a position to spend extra money. Thus, the implementation of a higher minimum wage by the Canadian government was essentially a great solution, particularly for the looming economic recession. The strategy would not only offer sufficient funds necessitated for a decent life but will also promote equality among Canadian citizens while also improving the Canadian economy. Therefore, the Canadian government was right to raise the minimum wage in ontarion as it proves the most effective way of resolving the present economic crisis in Canada and is in the best interest of all Canadian residents.

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