{"id":35669,"date":"2015-10-01T15:18:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T19:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=35669"},"modified":"2015-10-06T09:55:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T13:55:45","slug":"students-welcome-minimum-wage-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/10\/students-welcome-minimum-wage-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Students welcome minimum wage boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Mostert is happy to be getting a small raise today. The first-year BBA co-op student will be one of many Ontario workers to benefit from Thursday\u2019s 25-cent bump in the Ontario minimum wage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The increase to $11.25 an hour gives Ontario the second-highest minimum wage in Canada \u2014 behind only the Northwest Territories.<\/p>\n

The move will have an impact on thousands of Brock University students who work part-time, minimum wage jobs in order to help fund their post-secondary education.<\/p>\n

As an employee at Thundering Waters golf course, Mostert will see an immediate change in his paycheque.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/a>

Chris Mostert and Tara Decker<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt feels pretty good,\u201d said Mostert. \u201cI won\u2019t notice the raise that much, but it\u2019s always nice to be making more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostert\u2019s outright enthusiasm was not echoed by all. Second-year English Literature student Alisha Lemire said the raise won\u2019t have a big impact on her bottomline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a server it doesn\u2019t affect me. Normally I just use my tips and the rest goes straight to the bank,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With the wage for liquor servers rising to $9.80 an hour, Lemire \u2014 a server at Milestones in Niagara Falls \u2014 will also see a slight increase in her paycheque. However, she noted that due to being in school the impact of such a small raise will be minimal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it will really make a difference, because I only work 10 or 15 hours in a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With nearly 11 per cent of all Ontario workers earning minimum wage, the increase is sure to have an impact of some degree on the daily routines of many Ontarians.<\/p>\n

\"Alisha<\/a>

Alisha Lemire<\/p><\/div>\n

Brock University Department of Economics Professor Felice Martinello said while the increase is a positive step, it won\u2019t necessarily fix the bigger problem in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minimum wage is touted as a cure for lots of things that do need fixing in our society. Minimum wage is actually a very blunt and poor instrument for addressing the problems we want to address \u2014 namely that some people have very low incomes or few opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinello emphasized that the pay raise is not reaching the members of society it is intended to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want the minimum wage to help the poor, but when you actually look at who will be affected by that 25-cent increase, only a very small portion are poor. Tons of the minimum wage earners are teenagers or households who aren\u2019t poor at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the intended beneficiaries it is clear that many in the Brock community are happy with the raise.<\/p>\n

Brendan Caprenter, a third-year Sport Management student, was quick to point out that though the benefits of such a small raise on a part-time employee may seem minimal, it is certainly better than having no change at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy, every 25 cents counts in the long run. I won\u2019t complain, it\u2019s nice to have a little extra money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that most students welcome an increase in pay. What remains unclear is whether such a small increase will have any tangible impact on the lives of those who the wage hike is intended to help most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Mostert is happy to be getting a small raise today. The first-year BBA co-op student will be one of many Ontario workers to benefit from Thursday\u2019s 25-cent bump in the Ontario minimum wage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":35670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,4],"tags":[65,3417,3416],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35675,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35669\/revisions\/35675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}