TORONTO, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Ontario's minimum wage is set to rise to $8 (Canadian) from the current rate, $7.75, the provincial government says.
The 3.2 percent increase, set to take effect Feb. 1, will be the last step in a four-year plan to increase the minimum wage gradually to allow Ontario businesses time to adjust, The Ottawa Business Journal reports.
The move comes following a vote by Ontario lawmakers just before Christmas to give themselves 25 percent pay increases of $22,000 to $39,000.
"Symbolically it's appalling and in actuality it's appalling," New Democrat provincial legislator Cheri DiNovo -- who tried to increase the minimum wage to $10 -- told the Toronto Star. "We have people out there at $7.75 an hour. Now even when they're raised to $8 an hour they're still well below the poverty line, working 40 hours a week."
Proponents of the smaller increase said a $2.25 minimum wage increase would have hurt business and jeopardized jobs.
