Parti Quebecois wants government to raise minimum hourly wage from $14.25 to $18

The Parti Québécois (PQ) is calling on the Quebec government to gradually raise the minimum hourly wage for Quebecers to $18 in order to fight the impoverishment of workers.

In a news release published Monday, the PQ spoke about the growing income inequalities in Quebec and the lack of concrete actions to remedy them.

Matane-Matapédia MNA Pascal Bérubé insists that on Jan. 3, Canada's big bosses had already earned the annual salary of the average worker. It is, for the MNA, unjustifiable to tolerate such inequities in a rich and developed society like Quebec.

On that day, a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) added that Canada's 100 highest-paid corporate executives broke records in 2021, earning 243 times what the average Canadian worker earned. The vast majority of these executives' compensation came not from salary, but from variable compensation such as bonuses, stock options and shares.

Bérubé argues that in the context of high inflation, which he says has left Quebec families greatly impoverished in 2022, the Quebec government's actions have been too timid to provide lasting help to Quebec workers, particularly the less fortunate. He believes that the current minimum wage of $14.25 per hour, which is equivalent to about $27,000 per year, is not enough to live with dignity.

The PQ MNA mentioned increases in food, energy and housing prices. He maintains that the cheques distributed by the Quebec government will not solve the problem.

In its most recent release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Statistics Canada revealed that year-over-year inflation remained virtually constant in November in Canada at 6.8 per cent, but that prices for groceries rose at a faster pace. Prices for food purchased from shops rose 11.4 per cent year-over-year in November, following an 11 per cent increase in October.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 9, 2023.