Ontario's minimum wage goes up 75 cents an hour Monday. That's good for Yogarany Shanmuganathan, but won't bring down the price of rice.
The Scarborough woman, who has spent seven years going from one minimum-wage factory job to the next, says she could find a 40-kilo bag of rice for $34 last year, but now it's $50.
Shanmuganathan's household expenses - bread, TTC fares, the rent for her family of six - have been on "a Himalayan rise," she said this week through a Tamil-speaking translator.
"Compared to this the rise of the minimum wage is nothing."
Shanmuganathan said language barriers hold her back from seeking better employment and her husband is in the same situation, doing similar work.
Facing pressure from unions and anti-poverty groups last year, Ontario's Liberals pledged to raise the minimum wage from $8 to $10.25 an hour, but in three stages with the last coming March 31, 2010.
Living with minimum pay causes problems between husbands and wives, parents and children, Shanmuganathan said, adding every day she fights with one of her four children about what to buy or not buy.
"You've got to be financially planning all the time."
The Workers' Action Centre, whose members have pushed Toronto's Liberal MPPs to speed up the increases, will mark Monday's raise with a demonstration at Dufferin and Bloor streets at noon.
The advocacy group says passing a $10.25 wage immediately will play a key part in addressing the poverty that working people in Toronto face, particularly newcomers to Canada and women.
At $10.25 an hour, Shanmuganathan said, her family can reach the poverty line or be "one drop" above it.
But many business owners are glad the Liberals did not change their wage schedule in this week's provincial budget.
The Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association told the province to "stay the course" and continue phasing in the increase until 2010, rather than risk "reduced hours, layoffs and even the closure of businesses," in their industry.
As a "face of the industry," Ken Baxter, owner and operator of two restaurants, The Fish House and Joe Maggiano's Italian Steakhouse and Bar on Sheppard Avenue in North York, made the case in the association's pre-budget briefing that if minimum wage is raised to $10.25, the increase shouldn't go to employees who make tips.
"Gratuity servers are making $30, $40, $50 per hour with tips and now this increase is going to cost me $50,000 out of my own pocket because I am forced to pay them more. All the while, my other staff members, who could really use the raise, are not going to get one because I can no longer afford it."
Baxter said he doesn't have any minimum-wage employees except the servers - "I couldn't hire anyone for minimum wage," he said this week - and in fact restaurants face shortages of skilled and unskilled workers the province should help address.
Business groups had also told the province to keep the different minimum wages for those employees under 18 who work no more than 28 hours a week. Those wages will go up to $8.20 from $7.50 and for liquor-serving employees, the wage rises 65 cents Monday to $7.60 an hour.