Changes in payroll laws and regulations from across Canada
British Columbia
Government announces minimum wage changes
The provincial government will raise minimum wage rates this September and begin indexing the rates to the province’s consumer price index (CPI) one year later, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour Shirley Bond recently announced.
On Sept. 15, the general minimum wage will rise from $10.25 an hour to $10.45 and the rate for employees who serve liquor on licensed premises will increase from $9.00 an hour to $9.20. The daily minimum rate for live-in home support workers will increase from $102.50 to $104.50 and for live-in camp leaders it will rise from $82.00 to $83.60.
The minimum wage rates for resident caretakers will also go up in mid September. The rate for resident caretakers in apartments with nine to 60 suites will rise from $615.00/month plus $24.65/suite to $627.00/month plus $25.13/suite. For resident caretakers in apartments with more than 60 suites, the rate will rise from $2,094.84/month to $2,135.71.
Minimum wage rates will also go on Sept. 15 for farm workers who are paid on a piecework basis to hand-harvest crops. (For a full listing of rates changes, see www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2013-2017/2015JTST0040-000324.htm.)
Beginning Sept. 15, 2016, the province will index minimum wage rates using increases in the CPI for British Columbia for the previous year (rounded to the nearest nickel). In years where the CPI change is negative, Bond says the minimum wages would not change. The government will announce rate changes in March each year to give businesses time to adjust to the changes.
Nova Scotia
Reminder: Minimum wage rising April 1
Nova Scotia’s minimum wage rates went up on April 1. The rate for experienced workers (those with at least three months’ experience) increased from $10.40 an hour to $10.60. The rate for inexperienced workers (those with less than three months’ experience) rose from $9.90 per hour to $10.10.
Ontario
Bill proposes to add tip standards to ESA
A bill being studied by the Ontario legislature would regulate when employers may and may not withhold tips or gratuities from employees or deduct amounts from the payments.
Bill 12, Protecting Employees’ Tips Act, 2014, is a private member’s bill that would amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 to include standards for employee tips and gratuities.
Liberal MPP Arthur Potts tabled the bill in the Legislative Assembly last July. Unlike most private member’s bills, it passed first and second reading and is now before the Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly.
The bill would prohibit employers from withholding tips or gratuities from employees, deducting amounts from the tips or gratuities or causing employees to return their tips or gratuities to the employer unless allowed by a law or a court order or because the employer collects and redistributes them among some or all of the employees.
It would also prohibit employers, directors and shareholders from sharing in redistributed tips or gratuities unless they regularly do the same work as their employees who share in the tips or as employees of other employers in the same industry who commonly receive or share tips or gratuities.
Quebec
Reminder: Minimum wage rising May 1
On May 1, the Quebec government will increase the province’s minimum wage rates. The general minimum wage will rise from $10.35 per hour to $10.55. This rate also applies for employees in prescribed sectors of the clothing industry.
The minimum wage rate for employees who receive tips will increase from $8.90 an hour to $9.05. Minimum wages paid to raspberry and strawberry pickers will also go up on May 1. The rate for raspberry pickers will rise from $3.04 per kilogram to $3.12, while the rate for those who pick strawberries will increase from 81 cents per kilogram to 83 cents.
Yukon
Minimum wage increased April 1
On April 1, the territorial government increased the Yukon minimum wage rate to $10.86 an hour from $10.72. The minimum wage rate is indexed to the consumer price index and is adjusted every year on April 1.
