Minimum wage earners in the province of Saskatchewan can expect more money on their paycheques starting this Sunday.

The 2.2-per-cent increase in minimum wage will raise the current mark from $10.72 to $10.96 per hour, something an expert says shouldn't impact the province's economy.

"Probably none (impact wise), or not any that we could pick up in the statistics," Economics Associate Professor with the University of Regina Jason Childs said. "I mean 24 cents on a dollar isn't going to change a whole lot for virtually all the employers or employees out there."

The announcement was originally made on June 30 after the government used an indexation formula that calculates a weighted average of the increases to the Consumer Price Index and the average hourly wage for Saskatchewan.

"It's just kind of keeping the minimum wage on pace with price changes," he added. "It's keeping the real wage constant or attempting to. At the end of the day after this change, people working for that wage should be able to purchase the exact same basket of goods as they were before."

Childs also noted it would be a pretty good idea if minimum wage increases followed the inflation rate, assuming the province has the right level of minimum wage.

"Moving it forward means you've depoliticized it, making it incredibly mechanical and predictable so businesses and everybody else can adjust to it," he explained. "You wouldn't have this huge political debate every few years about where we should put minimum wage and you don't have it being decayed over time by price increases."

Provincially it's estimated that over 23,000 people are currently paid minimum wage in Saskatchewan, with roughly a third of minimum wage earners being students.

By 2019 both Ontario and Alberta plan to have minimum wages at $15 an hour. Childs believes Saskatchewan shouldn't follow that model as it might drive business to provinces with lower minimum wages.

"That kind of jump is going to have harm on employers, it has the real potential reduce the number of jobs out there and to put people out of business," he said. "It will also increase the concentration of large multinational corporations."