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A marginal increase to Quebec’s minimum wage comes into effect on Saturday, May 1, and the province’s largest association of restaurateurs isn’t thrilled about it.
“Given the current situation, the ARQ considers this increase to come at a very bad time for the industry,” the ARQ says (originally in French, but translated here) in a statement posted to the news section of its website on Wednesday, April 28. The minimum wage is slated to increase by $0.40 to $13.50, and by $0.35 to $10.80 for tipped workers.
Restaurants have been closed for in-person service for the last seven months due to government COVID-19 health restrictions, and though takeout and delivery are permitted, the setup only yields about 30 percent of what revenue would be during normal times, the ARQ says. These conditions, it adds, are prompting half of Quebec’s teetering restaurants to consider permanent closures.
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic and things are still looking bleak for Canada’s restaurant industry. The financial relief provided to restaurant owners, especially by provincial governments, has been largely ineffective. Guidelines for opening and closing are ad hoc and sudden. Proactive solutions like loosening liquor laws to create even a sliver of extra income for businesses still remains to be seen in some places. For the workers of this industry, who were already precarious pre-pandemic, this has been a time of unparalleled instability.
In numbers alone, Canada’s 1.2 million restaurant workers, who represent 7 percent of the country’s workforce, are significant. They are a large enough demographic that they have the potential to affect virus contagion nationally, and yet, support for them and their industry has been waning at best. Of those who have remained employed throughout the pandemic, most are still without paid sick leave, even amid this global health crisis. A