NDP leader calling on government to make further changes to minimum wage
NDP Leader Jim Dinn is calling on government to acknowledge that the legislated minimum wage rate increase on Sunday leaves many across the province living in poverty.
“It took the provincial government five years to listen to workers and agree to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, since then workers have faced record inflation, increasing costs of living, and aren’t able to make ends meet,” says Dinn. “The government must acknowledge that large profitable corporations cannot be raking in profits while their workers are choosing between feeding themselves and their children.”
The NL NDP is calling for a plan from the government that will force profitable employers to end their practice of using a legislated poverty wage to “exploit workers so the corporation’s bottom line is protected.” He says this plan must be put into place quickly and include measures to ensure smaller local businesses are able to move along with the plan.
“A worker at a grocery store earning minimum wage while punching a full week should not have to choose between heating their home and feeding their children this winter. It’s inhumane and I cannot fathom how successive governments refused to fix this inequality,” Dinn says.