Sask. to make change to minimum wage on Oct. 1

Saskatchewan’s minimum wage is set to increase on Oct. 1.

It’s to go up by 26 cents per hour to $11.32 per hour. The change — the 11th in the province since 2007 — was announced in June.

“Our government continues to introduce minimum wages that are sustainable and predictable,” Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan said in a media release.

“Since 2007 our government has increased the minimum wage by more than 40 per cent. We have also taken approximately 112,000 Saskatchewan residents off the provincial income tax roll, to help families keep more of their pay cheques in their pockets.”

The provincial government noted that the minimum wage is calculated using an indexation formula, which the release said “gives equal weight to changes to the Consumer Price Index and Average Hourly Wage for Saskatchewan.” The review, which is conducted annually, leads to changes to the minimum wage every October.

The province hiked the minimum wage from $10.20 to $10.50 in October 2015. In each October since then, the minimum wage has gone to $10.72 (in 2016), $10.96 (2017) and $11.06 (2018).

According to figures from the Retail Council of Canada, Saskatchewan still has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country.

As of June 1, Alberta had the highest such figure at $15, with Ontario next at $14.