The province of Ontario has increased its minimum wage to $16.55 per hour — unless workers are students under the age of 18, in which case their labour is only worth $15.60.
Québec and Manitoba eliminated their two-tier minimum wage in the late 1980s over concerns that the wage differential amounted to age discrimination and therefore violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ontario almost did as well 30 years ago. But the Ontario NDP government broke its promise, as I detail below.
The issue is personal for me. When I was 17 years old, I was hired by my hometown library. But a week into the job I was called into the head librarian’s office and told that they had made an administrative error. They would need to pay me the lower rate.
