On January 22, the office of the Labour Minister announced a 50-cent increase in Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s hourly minimum wage, which will bring it to $16.60 on May 1, 2026. For workers who earn tips, the minimum rate will increase by 40 cents to a meagre $13.30 an hour. This amounts to a 3.1% increase in both the general wage and the tipped wage. Where does that leave us financially?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s true that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.2% in December 2025 compared to December 2024. But a closer look reveals that food prices rose 5.1% and housing costs 5.3% over the same period. Since food and housing account for the lion\u2019s share of workers’ spending, especially for minimum wage earners, the higher minimum wage isn\u2019t enough to live on, much less build a better life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is the minimum wage a living wage?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In his press release, the Labour Minister proudly notes that his government has raised the minimum wage substantially since 2019. Is this just a smokescreen or a real leg up for the working class? In April 2025, the Institut de recherche et d\u2019informations socio\u00e9conomiques (IRIS), an independent research institute, published its calculation of a living wage<\/a>. A living wage is defined as the \u201chourly wage required to lift a worker out of poverty.\u201d So we are talking about the minimum income needed to pay the bills (to survive) and still have a little left over to handle unexpected expenses (to live). In short, it\u2019s the bare minimum needed to live with dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Montr\u00e9al area, the living wage as of April 2025 was $40,084 for a single person and $52,285 for a single-parent family with one child in daycare. To make that much, a single person working a 40-hour week would have to earn $20.87 per hour and a single-parent would have to earn $27.23 per hour. So, contrary to what the minister says, the minimum wage is not nearly enough to keep a person above the poverty line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s our takeaway? Once again, the government\u2019s minimum wage hike is designed to please employers, who want to keep their profits for themselves and brandish the threat of job losses if the minimum wage gets too high. That\u2019s a myth that needs to be busted: Studies show that a significant increase in the minimum wage would attract more people to the labour market, stimulating demand for goods and services and thereby boosting overall economic growth. Instead, the minister is offering scraps to keep the working class quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spiraling inequality<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Executive compensation has skyrocketed in recent years. According to the Observatoire qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois des in\u00e9galit\u00e9s<\/a>, the CEOs of Qu\u00e9bec’s largest companies make an average of $14.8 million per year, 236 times the average salary. Their compensation includes salary and also various extras, such as cash bonuses and stock options. The same applies in the public sector. The payroll for senior executives at Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec and the Minist\u00e8re de la Sant\u00e9 et des Services sociaux nearly doubled<\/a> in the wake of Minister Christian Dub\u00e9\u2019s reform. Managers, senior civil servants and university administrators hit the jackpot<\/a> in 2025 as their salaries surged into the stratosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the minimum wage for a single person remains at least $4 per hour (25.7%) below the living wage. Growing inequality has serious social consequences. It is therefore essential to demand the kind of wage increase that directly benefits the lowest-paid workers, most of whom are young people and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CCMM\u2019s Right to Work Committee is actively involved in the inter-union Minimum 20$ <\/em>campaign. Let’s take back what is rightfully ours. Wealth is created by workers. We are entitled to our fair share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this struggle resonates with you, the Right to Work Committee will be happy to welcome you aboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solidarity, brothers and sisters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Godefroy Borduas, coordinator of the Right to Work Committee \u2013 CCMM-CSN<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 22, the office of the Labour Minister announced a 50-cent increase in Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s hourly minimum wage, which will bring it to $16.60 on May 1, 2026. For workers who earn tips, the minimum rate will increase by 40 cents to a meagre $13.30 an hour. This amounts to a 3.1% increase in both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-right-to-work"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11592,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11591\/revisions\/11592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bibliography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
[1]<\/td> Cabinet du ministre du Travail, Le taux g\u00e9n\u00e9ral du salaire minimum passera \u00e0 16,60 $ l’heure le 1er mai 2026, <\/em>Qu\u00e9bec City: Gouvernement du Qu\u00e9bec, 2026.<\/td><\/tr> [2]<\/td> Institut de la statistique du Qu\u00e9bec, “Consumer Price Index (CPI), overall index, Canada, Qu\u00e9bec, Montr\u00e9al CMA and Qu\u00e9bec CMA, monthly data not seasonally adjusted (2002=100),” January 19, 2026. [Online]. https:\/\/statistique.quebec.ca\/en\/document\/consumer-price-index-cpi\/tableau\/consumer-price-index-cpi-overall-index-canada-quebec-montreal-cma-monthly-data-not-seasonally-adjusted. [Accessed January 25, 2026].<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"