Changes in payroll laws and regulations from across Canada
Alberta
Reminder: Minimum wage rates going up
The general minimum wage rate in Alberta will rise from $11.20 an hour to $12.20 on Oct. 1.
The rate will now apply to liquor servers since the government is eliminating a separate minimum wage rate for them on Oct. 1.
Other minimum wage rates are also going up at the beginning of October. The rate for certain salespersons specified in provincial regulations will rise from $446.00 per week to $486.00.
The rate for domestic employees who live in their employer’s residence will increase from $2,127 per month to $2,316.
Labour Minister Christina Gray says the Alberta government will keep an election promise to raise the general minimum wage rate to $15 an hour by 2018.
To achieve this, she says the government will increase the rate to $13.60 on Oct. 1, 2017, and to $15 on Oct. 1, 2018.
The rates that apply for salespersons and domestic employees will increase by equivalent amounts.
Ontario
Reminder: Minimum wage rates going up on Oct. 1
The general minimum wage rate in Ontario will rise from $11.25 an hour to $11.40 on Oct. 1.
Other minimum wage rates in the province will also go up. The rate for students who are under 18 and who work fewer than 28 hours a week (or more than 28 hours during school vacation) will go up from $10.55 an hour to $10.70.
The rate for liquor servers in Ontario will rise from $9.80 an hour to $9.90.
The minimum wage rate paid to homeworkers will increase from $12.40 an hour to $12.55 an hour.
The minimum wage rate for hunting and fishing guides will also increase on Oct. 1. The rate for guides who work fewer than five consecutive hours in a day will increase from $56.30 to $56.95.
The rate for guides who work five or more hours in a day, whether or not the hours are consecutive, will rise from $112.60 to $113.95.
Saskatchewan
Reminder: Minimum wage rate going up
The minimum wage rate in Saskatchewan will rise from $10.50 an hour to $10.72 on Oct. 1.
Under Saskatchewan law, the government uses annual changes to the province’s consumer price index and average hourly wage to set the minimum wage rate.
Quebec
2017 QPIP rates to remain at 2016 levels
Premium rates for the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) will remain at their 2016 levels next year, the Quebec government has announced.
Effective Jan. 1, 2017, the employee QPIP premium rate will be 0.548 per cent and the employer rate will be 0.767 per cent.
The government in Quebec has not yet announced the 2017 maximum insurable earnings amount. It is currently $71,500.Prince Edward Island
Reminder: Minimum wage rate going up
The minimum wage rate in Prince Edward Island will rise from $10.75 an hour to $11 on Oct. 1. It is the second minimum wage increase this year.
On June 1, the government raised the rate to $10.75 from $10.50.
The Department of Justice and Public Safety says about 9.3 per cent of P.E.I. workers are paid at the minimum wage rate.
Reminder: HST rate going up Oct. 1
Beginning Oct. 1, the rate for the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that applies in Prince Edward Island will rise from 14 per cent to 15 per cent.
The rate change will affect the value of taxable benefits that employers provide to employees that are subject to the HST.
The provincial government announced earlier this year that it would raise the provincial portion of the tax from nine per cent to 10 per cent, increasing the overall HST rate to 15 per cent.
With the change, the HST rate in all four Atlantic Provinces will be the same.
