Ontario's minimum wage has been one of the most contested pieces of labour policy in the province's history. Each increase has been fought for by workers, unions and community advocates — and resisted by employer groups claiming the economy could not bear the cost. Looking back at how the rate evolved reveals a recurring pattern: predictions of disaster, followed by evidence that modest increases do not destroy jobs.
Early Legislation: The Minimum Wage Act of 1920
Ontario first established a minimum wage in 1920 under the Minimum Wage Act, but its protections were limited. The legislation applied only to women workers and fixed the rate through a board rather than statute, making it subject to political pressure and administrative delay. Male workers in most industries had no floor on their wages at all until later amendments extended coverage more broadly.
For the next four decades, minimum wage increases in Ontario were irregular and politically driven. Rates lagged behind inflation during the postwar boom, meaning that in real terms, many low-wage workers saw their purchasing power erode even as the provincial economy grew rapidly.
The Push for Universal Coverage
The Employment Standards Act of 1968 unified Ontario's patchwork of labour standards legislation and established a single provincial minimum wage applying to most workers. The new framework was a significant step, but the rate itself remained modest. Through the 1970s, Ontario's minimum wage tracked roughly with inflation, but the relationship between minimum wages and a living income was rarely acknowledged in policy debate.
Labour councils across the province, including those in the Peel Region, consistently pressed municipal and provincial governments to treat the minimum wage as a matter of poverty reduction rather than merely a market adjustment. The argument was straightforward: a worker employed full-time at minimum wage should earn enough to meet basic needs.
The Freeze of the 1990s
The most significant setback for minimum wage earners in Ontario came in 1995, when the newly elected Progressive Conservative government under Mike Harris froze the minimum wage at $6.85 per hour. The freeze lasted eight years, until 2004. During that period, inflation steadily eroded the real value of the minimum wage. By the time the freeze ended, a minimum-wage worker earned substantially less in real terms than in 1995.
The freeze coincided with significant growth in precarious employment — part-time, temporary and contract work that paid at or near the minimum. Labour councils and anti-poverty organisations documented a sharp rise in working poverty during this period, with the Peel Region particularly affected given its large population of recent immigrants concentrated in low-wage service and manufacturing jobs.
The Road to $10 and Beyond
When the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty began raising the minimum wage in 2004, it committed to a schedule of incremental increases. The rate reached $10.25 per hour in 2010. Each increase was preceded by public debate about job losses; research by Canadian economists generally found the effects on employment to be small or negligible at modest increase levels.
The campaign for $15 an hour emerged from American fast-food worker strikes in 2012 and spread quickly to Canada. In Ontario, the Fight for $15 coalition brought together unions, community groups and social service organisations to demand a rate that would put full-time minimum-wage workers above the poverty line. The campaign argued that $10 or even $12 per hour remained insufficient for housing costs in cities like Brampton and Mississauga.
The $14 and $15 Increases of 2018
In 2017, the Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne passed Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act. The legislation increased the minimum wage to $14 per hour on 1 January 2018 and to $15 per hour on 1 January 2019. It also expanded protections for part-time workers and introduced personal emergency leave entitlements.
The incoming Conservative government under Doug Ford cancelled the scheduled increase to $15 and froze the rate at $14. Labour councils and advocacy groups mounted protests across the province. The rate was eventually increased to $15 in January 2022, after pressure from the pandemic's impact on low-wage essential workers became politically impossible to ignore.
Where Things Stand
As of 2024, Ontario's general minimum wage stands at $16.55 per hour, with higher rates for homeworkers and lower rates for liquor servers. The province adjusts the rate annually using an index tied to the Consumer Price Index — a change won through sustained advocacy that prevents future multi-year freezes.
Labour councils continue to argue that the minimum wage should be benchmarked to a living wage — the income required to cover basic costs in a specific community — rather than to inflation alone. In the Peel Region, calculated living wages have consistently exceeded the general minimum by several dollars per hour.
For current employment standards information, visit the Ontario Employment Standards Act page.