Canadian Payroll Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CPR | April 2015 Legislative Roundup licensed premises will increase from $9.00 an hour to $9.20. The daily minimum rate for live-in home support workers will increase from $102.50 to $104.50 and for live-in camp leaders it will rise from $82.00 to $83.60. The minimum wage rates for resident caretakers will also go up in mid September. The rate for resident caretakers in apartments with nine to 60 suites will rise from $615.00/month plus $24.65/ suite to $627.00/month plus $25.13/suite. For resident caretak- ers in apartments with more than 60 suites, the rate will rise from $2,094.84/month to $2,135.71. Minimum wage rates will also go on Sept. 15 for farm workers who are paid on a piecework basis to hand-harvest crops. (For a full listing of rates changes, see www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_ releases_2013-2017/2015JTST0040-000324.htm.) Beginning Sept. 15, 2016, the province will index minimum wage rates using increases in the CPI for British Columbia for the previous year (rounded to the nearest nickel). In years where the CPI change is negative, Bond says the minimum wages would not change. The government will announce rate changes in March each year to give businesses time to adjust to the changes. Nova Scotia Reminder: Minimum wage rising April 1 Nova Scotia's minimum wage rates went up on April 1. The rate for experienced workers (those with at least three months' experience) increased from $10.40 an hour to $10.60. The rate for inexperi- enced workers (those with less than three months' experience) rose from $9.90 per hour to $10.10. Ontario Bill proposes to add tip standards to ESA A bill being studied by the Ontario legislature would regulate when employers may and may not withhold tips or gratuities from em- ployees or deduct amounts from the payments. from LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP on page 1 Bill 12, Protecting Employees' Tips Act, 2014, is a private mem- ber's bill that would amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 to include standards for employee tips and gratuities. Liberal MPP Arthur Potts tabled the bill in the Legislative As- sembly last July. Unlike most private member's bills, it passed first and second reading and is now before the Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly. The bill would prohibit employers from withholding tips or gra- tuities from employees, deducting amounts from the tips or gratu- ities or causing employees to return their tips or gratuities to the employer unless allowed by a law or a court order or because the employer collects and redistributes them among some or all of the employees. It would also prohibit employers, directors and shareholders from sharing in redistributed tips or gratuities unless they regularly do the same work as their employees who share in the tips or as employees of other employers in the same industry who commonly receive or share tips or gratuities. Quebec Reminder: Minimum wage rising May 1 On May 1, the Quebec government will increase the province's minimum wage rates. The general minimum wage will rise from $10.35 per hour to $10.55. This rate also applies for employees in prescribed sectors of the clothing industry. The minimum wage rate for employees who receive tips will in- crease from $8.90 an hour to $9.05. Minimum wages paid to rasp- berry and strawberry pickers will also go up on May 1. The rate for raspberry pickers will rise from $3.04 per kilogram to $3.12, while the rate for those who pick strawberries will increase from 81 cents per kilogram to 83 cents. Yukon Minimum wage increased April 1 On April 1, the territorial government increased the Yukon mini- mum wage rate to $10.86 an hour from $10.72. The minimum wage rate is indexed to the consumer price index and is adjusted every year on April 1. the recent softening in our index," says Tal. The index shows a similar trend in the ratio of paid-employment to self-employment, with the number of self-employed Canadians growing four times faster than the number of paid employees in the last year. The index rates self- employment to be of lower quality because, on average, it pays less than salaried positions. When it comes to the compensation ranking of full-time paid employment jobs in more than 100 industry groups, the index also finds concerns, says Tal. "The number of low-paying full-time jobs has risen faster than the number of mid-paying jobs, which in turn, has risen faster than the number of high-paying jobs," he says. "Over the year ending January 2015, the job creation gap between low- and high-paying jobs has widened with the number of low-paying full- time paid positions rising twice as fast as the number of high-paying jobs. Those trajectories are largely behind the softening in our measure of employment quality over the past two decades." Survey finds more vacation days a popular benefit › MENLO PARK, Calif. — Two recent surveys suggest many executives may be undervaluing a job perk that their workers most want besides more money — more vacation days. The surveys, developed by staffing firm Accountemps and carried out by an independent research firm, asked CFOs and employees which job perk, other than additional compensation, the employees would be most interested in receiving this year. More than 2,100 CFOs responded to the survey of executives and over 320 employees responded to the survey of adult office workers. Forty-one per cent of the CFOs said employees chiefly want better benefits (such as improvements to the health-care plan), 19 per cent said more vacation days, 15 per cent said more flexibility in scheduling and 12 per cent cited more training and professional development. The rest mentioned other perks or did not know. When it came to the employees, 30 per cent cited more vacation days as their top wish, 26 per cent would like better benefits, 19 per cent want more flexibility in scheduling and 15 per cent want more training and professional development. The rest mentioned other perks. Although the surveys reveal that executives may be underestimating the value of time away from work, Bill Driscoll, a district president with Accountemps, says the results show a possible silver lining for employers. "Changing a company's benefits package can be a lengthy, challenging and expensive process; re-evaluating the vacation policy is fairly straightforward in comparison," he said. from NEWS IN BRIEF on page 4

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