The minimum wage in Quebec will rise from $15.75 to $16.10 on May 1.
This 2.22 per cent increase will boost the disposable income of minimum wage workers by $484 a year, Labour Minister Jean Boulet told The Canadian Press Friday.
He said there’s a delicate balance to maintain.
“It allows the minimum wage to evolve in a balanced way, respecting companies’ ability to pay while allowing workers to increase their income and preserve their purchasing power,” he said.
Some 217,400 employees will benefit from the announced increase, mainly in the retail and catering sectors. These include 118,400 women.
The announcement is always made a few months before it comes into force, in order to ensure a degree of predictability for the employers concerned, Boulet noted.
“The economic insecurity that we are experiencing is leading to a lot of redundancies, lay-offs and delays in investment,” the minister said.
“We have this climate that we have to take into account to ensure that we don’t harm the competitiveness of businesses, particularly small businesses. We don’t want to put the jobs of minimum wage earners at risk.”
With this increase, the minimum wage will represent 50.52 per cent of the average hourly wage in Quebec, said Boulet.
“Minimum wage increases since 2019 have been significantly higher than inflation. In fact, since 2019, the minimum wage rose from $12 to $16.10. That’s an increase of 34.2 per cent, while inflation was 25 per cent for the same period,” he said.
For tipped employees, the increase will be 30 cents an hour, bringing their minimum wage to $12.90 an hour.
In Ontario, a province with which Quebec is often compared, the minimum wage is currently $17.20 an hour.
This report by The Canadian Press was firs published in French Jan. 31, 2025.
