Scrap Policy Allowing ‘Time-and-a-Half’ Based on Minimum Wage, Common Front Tells Province

New Brunswick and Newfoundland are the only two provinces in Canada that allow employers to calculate overtime pay at 1.5 times the minimum wage — instead of 1.5 times the worker’s regular wage.

And if an employee’s wages already exceed that amount, they aren’t required to offer any extra pay at all.

Anti-poverty campaigners from the NB Common Front for Social Justice want to see those oddities eliminated from New Brunswick’s labour standards. In a newly-released report, the group calls for an overhaul of “weak and inefficient” standards offering “little real protection for workers.”

The report renews calls for the government to replace the minimum wage, currently $15.65 per hour, with a living wage of $24.62. And it calls for the reforms, including paid sick leave, a demand that gained prominence with the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the political left can expect resistance from industry. A lobbyist with the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses says his group opposes sick leave legislation because it would remove a “competitive advantage” for employers that already offer it as a benefit.

Overtime

Unlike almost every jurisdiction in the country, New Brunswick’s Employment Standards Act allows for employers to offer time-and-a-half based on the minimum wage.

Minimum wage in New Brunswick currently stands at $15.65 per hour, meaning that employers must pay at least $23.48 per hour for overtime, which only begins after 44 hours of work. Employers have the right to require those extra hours.

That means that under New Brunswick’s labour standards, even a worker whose regular wage is $23 per hour could be required to work overtime for just $23.48 per hour. In most provinces and all territories, the same worker would receive what’s commonly known as time-and-a-half, at $33 per hour.

“The Common Front recommends that the overtime rate of pay be calculated at one-and-a-half workers’ regular wages (not the minimum wage), as in all other provinces,” the report states. In fact, Newfoundland and Labrador also allows for the practice, according to a review of employment standards nationwide conducted by the NB Media Co-op.

Another unusually harsh aspect of New Brunswick’s overtime policy involves people whose wages already exceed $23.48. Those workers aren’t entitled to any extra overtime pay whatsoever, according to a Government of New Brunswick factsheet.

New Brunswick’s minister responsible for labour, Alyson Townsend, wasn’t available for an interview, and the provincial government didn’t respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week, the province announced that Townsend, the Liberal MLA for Rothesay, would return to the labour portfolio after previously stepping down from Cabinet to receive treatment for a brain tumour.

40-hour week

The Common Front, a grassroots anti-poverty group, is also recommending that the provincial government lower the weekly threshold for overtime pay from the current 44 hours down to 40 hours. That would align New Brunswick’s policy with those of Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Ontario is the only province other than New Brunswick with a 44-hour weekly overtime threshold. On the other hand, the policy in P.E.I. and Nova Scotia is even tougher, with overtime starting after 48 hours per week.

In several provinces and territories, workers get time-and-a-half for any hours beyond an eight-hour workday or a 40-hour week, including B.C., Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.

In B.C., double time pay kicks in for any hours beyond a 12-hour workday. In Alberta, overtime is anything over eight hours a day or 44 hours a week, whichever is greater.

There are, generally speaking, exceptions in Canada’s various employment standards depending on occupation. Long-haul truck drivers in B.C. have to work 60 hours in a week to get time-and-a-half, for example.

And notably, federally-regulated sectors such as banking and railways are subject to regular time-and-a-half provisions, which kick in on workdays beyond eight hours or workweeks beyond 40 hours.

‘Backwards’ policy

The NB Media Co-op reached out to people on the Facebook group NB, Canada Let’s Talk! to get their perspective.

One home care worker said she’s directly affected by the policy. “It is so unfair, because when working overtime, my salary is almost equivalent as my regular salary,” said Tammy Gauthier.

Several people expressed outrage or disbelief to learn that the policy was on the books at all. “That’s the most backwards thing I’ve ever heard,” said Maggie Miranda.

Others said that their employers had never attempted to use the loophole.

“Never had that issue in all the years I’ve been working,” said one Facebook user under the pseudonym RedGoldfish89. “Time and a half at regular salary. Always!”

Rosie Woodman said she’d encountered the minimum-wage overtime practice once, and soon left that job.

One member noted that conditions are better in unionized workplaces. “I’ve been in a union for 20 years, double time is the standard,” said Gino Adriano Pascon

Poverty wages

The recommendations on overtime are outlined in a report from the Common Front that focuses on the difficulties faced by workers earning minimum wage.

Six per cent of workers in New Brunswick — about 21,700 people — were earning minimum wage last year, according to provincial government figures cited in the report.

Of that number, 56 per cent were working part-time and about one-third were between 15 and 19 years old, according to the provincial government.

The Common Front report looks at four scenarios: a single person; a single person with one child; a single-income couple with one child; and a dual-income couple with two children. All of them involved full-time, minimum-wage work.

After deductions, all four categories remained below the poverty line. For example, a single person with one child would see an annual take-home pay of about $24,600 — $12,000 under the poverty line for that household, according to Statistics Canada figures cited in the report.

The analysis shows that a combination of government benefits, tax credits, and tax refunds lifted three of those categories out of poverty — the exception being a couple with one child, who remained under the poverty line by a whopping $7,800.

“The stark reality is that employers are keeping workers in poverty,” the report states. “For many, it is our tax dollars keeping their heads above water.”

Overhaul standards

The biggest recommendation in the report is a transition from the current minimum wage to a living wage, generally defined as the amount needed to “enjoy a decent quality of life and avoid severe financial stress.”

New Brunswick’s living wage reached $24.62 per hour in 2024, according to the most recent calculations from the Saint John-based Human Development Council.

The Common Front report recommends several other changes to employment standards, notably the implementation of 10 days of paid sick leave annually.

It also calls for increased vacation time, a 15-minute coffee break after three hours of work, provisions requiring employers to pay for uniforms, and private-sector pay equity — generally defined as equal pay for work of equal value — to close the gendered pay gap.

Industry response

The NB Media Co-op reached out to business associations in industries that employ low-wage workers to get their response to the report.

By publication time, the only response was from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses.

The group’s vice-president for Atlantic Canada, Louis-Philippe Gauthier, said in a phone interview that the CFIB doesn’t have a position on several of the demands, but that it would survey its 3,600 members about issues like overtime policy if the government ever showed interest in making those reforms.

But he said the CFIB opposes paid sick leave legislation and the implementation of a living wage.

“We fully disagree with the notion that minimum wage should be increased to match what’s loosely called the living wage,” Gauthier said. The CFIB has called for the government to “tie minimum wage increases to increases in the median wage,” he said.

The senior lobbyist argued that beyond a certain threshold, the minimum wage would discourage people from pursuing post-secondary education.

He described the minimum wage as an “entry wage for people with low experience,” and said that a major increase would cause inflation and “distortions in the marketplace.”

It’s a typical position for economically right-wing industry lobbies that hold considerable influence in government and media.

Following Nova Scotia’s decision to increase its minimum wage by $1.30 per hour this year in two phases — it will reach $16.50 per hour next month — the industry association Restaurants Canada warned that the policy “threatens restaurants’ survival.” That group didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

The CFIB also wants Premier Susan Holt’s Liberal government to resist calls for paid sick leave, Gauthier said.

“We are recommending to the government not to implement employer-mandated employer-paid sick days,” he said.

“From our perspective, it is a competitive advantage to businesses that offer it, and we would not want the government to intervene in removing the competitive advantage.”

As for pay equity, which Holt promised to implement in her 2024 election campaign, Gauthier said, “That’s a longer conversation.”

He said, in part, that the CFIB wants more information on how the government will measure reductions in the gender pay gap, and over what period of time.

He also revealed that the CFIB is planning to call for the reversal of private-sector pay equity — which hasn’t yet been introduced — if it doesn’t meet those objectives. “If they don’t reach their targets, then we would ask government to remove the policy.”

He also stated that the CFIB is calling on the province to limit the implementation of pay equity legislation so that it doesn’t apply to small businesses.

He added the limit should be based on “a certain threshold of numbered employees and to make sure the requirements are as light as possible from a reporting perspective.”

The province hasn’t yet revealed details about its plans for pay equity legislation. In March, Lyne Chantal Boudreau, Minister responsible for Women’s Equality, said the government was working with partners, including the NB Coalition for Pay Equity to prepare the bill “as soon as possible.”

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).