The minimum wage in Ontario is rising by 40 cents to $17.60 as of Oct. 1, 2025. But living wage advocates say it's not enough.
The Ontario minimum wage will set the province's rate as the second-highest provincial rate in Canada with this annualized salary hike, which is based on the province's 2.4 per cent Consumer Price Index (CPI).
According to a press release, 24 per cent of workers who currently make $17.60 or less an hour are employed in the lodging and food services sector, while nearly 36 per cent are employed in the retail sector.
David Piccini, the minister of labour, immigration, training and skills development, said in the release that the provincial government will continue to support workers.
“Our government will continue to have the backs of Ontario workers, investing in skills training and development and helping ensure that work pays,” Piccini Said.
Piccini said Ontario remains at the top of the country in terms of minimum wage.
“Ontario’s minimum wage remains one of the highest in the country. Now more than ever, workers and businesses need fair, balanced and predictable wages,” he said.
Ontario currently holds third place in highest minimum wages, only following Yukon at $17.94 and Nunavut at $19 an hour.
The release stated these improvements will result in an annual pay increase of up to $835 for a worker who works 40 hours a week at the general minimum wage.
Ontario's general minimum wage rose to the current $17.20 from the previous $16.55 an hour on Oct. 1, 2024.
Danielle Bew, a student at York University who also juggles a job at Dairy Queen, said she is delighted to hear about the wage increase.
“It's good, obviously. It's not gonna happen till next October, but any way I can bring in more money is a bonus,” Bew said. “It's definitely gonna help me a lot because I'm in school, but I'm also trying to work as much as I can and I'm trying to bring in money for myself.”
But the provincial minimum wage in Ontario won't cover the expected expenses of living in major urban centres.
Craig Pickthorne, the director of communications for the Ontario Living Wage Network, said there are still many problems despite the increase.
“I suppose it’s technically a positive because it's going up, however, the living wage for Toronto and the GTA is $26, so still even after the increase it's still gonna be short by over eight dollars an hour, so that's approaching several hundreds of dollars a week that someone is still short being able to make ends meat where they live,” he said.
The Greater Toronto Area requires the highest minimum in Ontario for a living wage and has increased 3.8 per cent since 2023, due mostly to rising costs for rent in the province.
Pickthorne said not only is Toronto and the GTA’s living wage requirement higher than the minimum wage, but it is also true for all around the province.
“There's no place in Ontario where you can work a full-time minimum wage job, just like everyone else, put in the hours where you can do that on minimum wage and be able to pay all your bills, you can't do it,” Pickthorne said.
The necessity for a pay rate that can support a household is highlighted by the fact that many minimum wage workers are not only youths or students but also people who are trying to support their families.
A recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that rent takes up a large amount of minimum wage workers' income in Toronto, which makes it difficult for them to afford even a one-bedroom apartment.
The average rent for a single bedroom in Toronto is $2,313 a month in March, and that reflects a 6.4 per cent drop year-over-year, according to the latest national rent report released April 8.
Pickthorne said covering the cost of living is even more difficult to pay when on a minimum wage paycheck.
“Because of the cost of things, the cost of existence, it’s effectively like giving a pay cut,” he said. “Whatever increase you make to the minimum wage gets swallowed up by the cost of rent, food, child care and transportation, so it's not an effective way to combat working poverty at all.”
