Minimum-wage hike coming in Saskatchewan as result of index based on inflation, average salaries

The hourly minimum wage for Saskatchewan workers will increase by 36 cents in October as the result of the province’s annual review of changes in the cost of living and average wages. Those two factors are weighted equally under Saskatchewan’s indexing formula.

The minimum wage will be raised to $11.81 per hour (Canadian dollars). In Canada, the setting of a minimum wage is left solely to the provinces — currently as high as $15.20 in British Columbia and as low as $11.45 in Saskatchewan, according to the Retail Council of Canada.

Like Saskatchewan, three states in the Midwest do some kind of indexing to regularly adjust the minimum wage: Minnesota, Ohio and South Dakota. None of these states accounts for changes in the average wage, they instead are adjusted based on the consumer price index. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Illinois has the highest minimum wage among the 11 Midwestern states. It is $11 per hour and scheduled to reach $15 per hour by 2025. In Saskatchewan, there have been 13 raises in the minimum wage, for a total increase of more than 48 percent, since 2007.