money

The provincial opposition says the Saskatchewan Party government has let the province's minimum wage slide to the lowest in all of Canada.

The New Democrats say the province's minimum wage of $9.50 an hour, which has been in effect since September of last year, will become the lowest in the country after Alberta raises its wage to $9.75 an hour on Saturday.

NDP Labour Critic David Forbes says having the lowest minimum wage in the country is a clear case of the Brad Wall government putting ideology ahead of common sense, and adds the Sask Party is letting families fall into poverty. He says raising the minimum wage will be good for Saskatchewan's economy and the job market, and the party is calling for it to be indexed with Statistics Canada's low-income threshold.

Meanwhile, the provincial government says Saskatchewan workers are continuing to earn more on average, saying a Stats Canada report released today shows weekly earnings increasing by 6.6% in June from 2011, more than double the national average year-over-year increase, and rose by nearly 2% from May.

The average weekly wage for June in Saskatchewan was reported to be $914.27.