A recent increase to Manitoba’s minimum wage has received lukewarm approval by the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

President of the MFL, Kevin Rebeck, shares his thoughts on the matter here.

“Any increase is good but I think we just keep kind of nudging minimum wage along and we are failing workers. I would hope that we can all agree that anyone who works full time shouldn’t live in poverty but the reality is, with our poverty level minimum wage, that it is what people are experiencing.”

Rebeck says the MFL believes a review should be done annually, in consultation with business and labour and poverty experts to come up with an appropriate number.

He indicated the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative already does calculations of living wages by community.

According to them, for Thompson, they’ve identified that wage to be $17.48 an hour.

In Winnipeg it comes to $19.21 per hour, mainly because of the cost of housing in the city.

Hear more about recent changes to labour laws.   You’ll find the full interview with Rebeck at thompsononline.ca