Ontario just hiked its minimum wage to $14 per hour — and shed some 59,000 jobs in exchange.
While it’s not yet clear if the two events are entirely correlated, the Canadian province did kiss 59,300 part-time jobs goodbye in January, the same month it raised the minimum wage, CBC News reported.
Matthieu Arseneau, a senior economist at National Bank Financial Markets, described the job losses as “whopping,” noting it may “be a sign of adjustments made by corporations coping with a minimum wage surge.”
And that’s a strong possibility. As IJR previously reported, several businesses made staff cuts, changed their hours, or increased costs ahead of the wage hike.- READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider] Restaurants are feeling the heat as minimum wage increases across the country have been putting a strain on profit margins, leading at least one industry insider to assert that “thousands” of establishments may soon be forced to close.Eighteen states saw minimum wage increases on Jan. 1, 2018, and while a raise in hourly pay may be beneficial to employees in the short term, the financial hold it places on restaurants could push the industry to the brink, in a similar manner to the so-called “retail apocalypse.”
Willie Degel, host of the TV program “Restaurant Stakeout” and the CEO of Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse, thinks the minimum wage increases could cause many establishments to go out of business.
“I think you’re going to see thousands of restaurants close their doors,” Degel told Fox Business.
“Fine dining is going to go by the wayside.”
Experts like Sonia Riggs have noted that restaurants already produce “slim profit margins,” according to KCNC. – READ MORE
[contentcards url=”https://ijr.com/the-declaration/2018/02/1065039-ontario-hiked-minimum-wage-up-to-14-look-whats-happening-to-part-time-jobs/” target=”_blank”]