Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown supports provincial minimum wage increase, including restaurant staff
Published November 4, 2021 at 2:08 pm
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is in favour of the Province’s decision to increase minimum wage to $15 per hour, including for liquor servers.
“I support the increase to minimum wage,” he said during his weekly press conference on Wednesday (November 3).
“I think people deserve to have a livable wage,” he said. “I’m glad the government is raising the bar, but it should have happened a few years ago.”
Some restaurateurs believe the decision to include liquor servers, which includes servers, bartenders, and others in the hospitality industry who are also paid in tips, will hurt their businesses, many of which have suffered significantly over the last year due to pandemic-related restrictions, and have still not recovered fully.
Currently, liquor servers make $12.55 an hour, but when the minimum wage increase comes into effect on January 1, servers will make $15 per hour, along with all other minimum wage positions.
This increase means the cost of labour for restaurants will be increasing by nearly $2.5 per hour per server compared to other, general-minimum-wage businesses, that will see their costs increase by just $0.65 per hour per staff member.
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Brown suggested the increase could actually be a boon to restaurants that are struggling to attract staff to work for them.
“Frankly, I’m hearing some businesses are finding it difficult to attract people to work in restaurants,” he said. “So, if you’re paying people minimum wage, I don’t know how you’re going to attract them to work in your restaurant.”
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