{"id":768531,"date":"2026-09-12T17:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768531\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T17:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:18:20","slug":"would-a-20-minimum-wage-in-quebec-actually-be-a-big-blow-to-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768531\/","title":{"rendered":"Would a $20 minimum wage in Quebec actually be a ‘big blow’ to the economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With bills stretching paycheques to the limit, Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire is pitching a $20 minimum wage to help bring relief to low-income workers.<\/p>\n

But Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec (CAQ) Leader Christine Fr\u00e9chette contended that hiking the rate too quickly would have a detrimental ripple effect.<\/p>\n

“It would be a big blow, because in fact, when you modify the minimum wage, it’s certain that the entire wage scale is affected by it,” Fr\u00e9chette told Radio-Canada<\/a> host Anne-Marie Dussault on Wednesday evening, adding that a jump of that scale would “hurt the economy too much.”<\/p>\n

But does economic data actually support that claim?<\/p>\n

Eve-Lyne Couturier, a researcher with the Institut de recherche et d’informations socio\u00e9conomiques (IRIS), said the concerns raised by the CAQ leader are unfounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year you have business representatives come out and say, \u2018this is too much,\u2019\u201d she said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we see in reality is that the dramatic effects do not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2023 IRIS study<\/a> examining wage dynamics and inflation, Couturier and co-author Rapha\u00ebl Langevin found no evidence that raising wages for low earners triggers inflationary wage-price spirals or economic instability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At $16.60 an hour, Quebec currently ranks fifth highest among Canadian provinces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When accounting for the federal minimum wage and the Northwest\u00a0Territories, Quebec falls to ninth place overall.<\/p>\n

WATCH | What does the economic data actually say?:\"\"<\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire pitches $20 minimum wage, drawing criticism from CAQ<\/p>\n

Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire says if elected, it would raise the province\u2019s minimum wage from its current $16.60 to $20. CAQ Leader Christine Fr\u00e9chette argued the proposal would damage the economy and affect the entire wage scale, but some researchers say otherwise.<\/p>\n

According to the Institut de la statistique du Qu\u00e9bec, 137,100 people \u2014 about three per cent of the province’s salaried workforce \u2014 earn the exact statutory minimum wage floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But raising the baseline to $20 an hour would have a broader impact, delivering a direct pay increase to an estimated 250,000 to 260,000 Quebecers currently earning between $16.60 and $20.<\/p>\n

Pierre-Antoine Harvey, an assistant professor of industrial relations at the Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, acknowledged making the minimum wage $20 in a single year would be a \u201cbig jump.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, he said empirical research suggests it wouldn’t lead to any upheaval. Harvey said some studies show minimum wage increases drive up the wages of those earning slightly more than the minimum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a direct link between a big minimum wage increase and a loss of jobs,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cIt\u2019s an exaggeration that we hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the criticism of the proposal on Radio-Canada, Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire\u2019s co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal said that people should \u201cbe able to live in dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted that her party\u2019s proposal includes $330 million to help businesses deal with the sudden wage increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the deal is simple. When you work, you’re supposed to be able to pay the bills and not fall into poverty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-768531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}