And over 1,400 Lambton public sector workers make more than $100K

Ontario’s minimum wage will go up to $17.20 per hour starting Oct. 1.

Minimum wage increases every year based on the consumer price index. It was 3.9 per cent this year which means an increase of 65 cents an hour to $17.20.

That will make Ontario’s minimum wage the second highest in Canada with the province of BC sitting at $17.40.

A worker making the general minimum wage and working 40 hours per week will see an annual pay increase of up to $1,355.

A person working 40 hours a week at the $17.20 minimum wage will make $688 per week or $35,776 yearly.

There were 935,600 workers earning at or below $17.20 per hour in 2023. Thirty-five per cent of those workers are in retail, 24 per cent are in accommodation and food services.

Just hours before the province announced the increase in minimum wage, it also released the Public Salary Disclosure Act list. In Lambton County, there are over 1,400 people on the so-called Sunshine List of public employees who make more than $100,000 a year.

The Lambton-Kent District School Board has the most people with salaries over $100,000. Many of the 906 are elementary and secondary school teachers.

The Chief Executive Officer of Bluewater Health, Paula Reaume-Zimmer, is the highest paid public sector worker in Lambton at $314,183.77. Lambton College President Rob Kardas is next on the list at $295,546.73 and Lambton County’s Medical Officer of Health Karalyn Dudeck is third with a salary of $292,759.19.

In rural Lambton County, every municipality now has at least one employee on the Sunshine List.