Labour movement pushes for minimum wage of $10 - By NORMAN DE BONO, London Free Press, Canada
More than one million people in Ontario now earn minimum wage, and many of them work for highly profitable corporations such as Wal-Mart and McDonald's, he said.
'More than one million people in Ontario have a hard time paying the rent, feeding their kids on the salary they make, everyone knows that,' Samuelson said. 'They are forced to run to food banks. Ontario can do so much better.'
Peters said the minimum wage increase makes Ontario's employers among the highest-paying in the country, trailing only the territories, where workers in Nunavut get a minimum of $8.50 an hour, and those in the Northwest Territories and Yukon get $8.25.
The rate is also $8 an hour in British Columbia -- and will be later this year in Manitoba and Quebec -- while the national low is $7 in Alberta, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.