With the minimum wage going up to $14 per hour in Ontario, it’s amazing to see how a company whose CEO made the equivalent of $3,934.38 per hour in 2017 explain why they can’t afford to pay their workers the new rate.
As a result of the increase from $11.86 to $14, Tim Hortons franchises in Ontario did things like cut benefits and breaks for their workers, including the children of the founders of the chain, Jeri-Lynn Horton-Joyce and Ron Joyce Jr.
Now, there is a reason to feel somewhat sorry for the franchisees. To buy their product, they can only buy from one supplier – Restaurant Brands International. That means they can set the price of the supplies they need. Restaurant Brands International also sets the price at the till.
As for Restaurant Brands International, which is making record profits and paid CEO Daniel Schwartz almost $8.2 million in 2017, there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t bear the increased costs of labour – a cost that’s probably closer to what their workers need to earn to not live in poverty.
The key reason why the minimum wage is increased in the first place is so that people who are working full-time doing productive work shouldn’t live in poverty. If there’s people under the poverty line working full-time, maybe, just maybe, the pay is too low.
In the end, the cost of labour is part of the cost of business. Paying a wage that allows people to live a somewhat decent life should be a higher priority than paying an already rich CEO even more money.
