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Those making the lowest wages in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will earn roughly a dollar an hour more starting Thursday.

On June 1, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s minimum wage jumps from $15.65 to $16.75 an hour, a 7.0 per cent increase. This makes sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ the province with the highest minimum wage in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, though minimum-wage workers in Yukon make a few pennies more.

The sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ government has made annual increases to the minimum wage since 2018, when minimum-wage workers made $12.65 an hour. The series of hikes has raised the minimum by about a third in the past five years.

Before 2017, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ had one of the lowest minimum wages in the country despite being among the most expensive places to live.

The boost, which was announced in early April, is geared toward the rate of inflation and will increase the pay of about 150,000 workers who currently make less than $16.75 an hour.

It also applies to resident caretakers, live-in home support workers and live-in camp leaders. The piece rate for hand-harvesting 15 crops listed in the Employment Standards Regulation will increase by 6.9 per cent on Jan. 1, 2024.

The new base rate is similar to the federal government’s new minimum for federally regulated employees, which rose from $15.55 to $16.65 at the start of April. The 7.0 per cent increase is slightly above the 6.75 per cent increase the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ government gave public sector workers earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the living wage has risen to above $20 an hour for many communities in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

The living wage is the hourly wage that two parents working full-time need to earn to support a family of four, as calculated by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. In Greater Victoria, it is $24.29; in Nanaimo, $20.49.

Most jurisdictions in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ are increasing their minimum wages this year, with the exception of Alberta and Nunavut.

A statement from the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Labour Ministry said it plans to tie all future minimum-wage hikes to the rate of inflation.

MINIMUM WAGES ACROSS CANADA

Minimum wages across sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ range from $13 an hour in Saskatchewan to $16.77 an hour in Yukon, according to Statistics sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½:

• Yukon — $16.77

• sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ — $16.75

• Federal — $16.65

• Nunavut — $16

• Ontario — $15.50

• Quebec — $15.25

• N.W.T. — $15.20

• Alberta — $15

• New Brunswick — $14.75

• P.E.I. — $14.50

• Newfoundland — $14.50

• Nova Scotia — $14.50

• Manitoba — $14.15

• Saskatchewan — $13

— With files from the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½