Minimum wage in New Brunswick to reach highest in Atlantic Canada

The New Brunswick legislature building. Photo: Canva/HR Law Canada
By Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, New Brunswick

On April 1, the third $1 per-hour increase to the minimum wage over the past 12 months will push New Brunswick’s minimum wage to $14.75 per hour, the highest in Atlantic Canada.

Following increases totalling $2-per hour in 2022, the minimum wage is once again indexed to the province’s consumer price index, which grew by 7.3 per cent in 2022.

“Our government has done significant work in terms of New Brunswick’s minimum wage from indexing adjustments to the consumer price index, to making a necessary course correction in 2022 to make us more competitive and improve the standard of living,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder. “We are incredibly proud to support New Brunswick residents through improvements to the minimum wage which has raised $3.50 per-hour by our government.”

In 2019, the government officially indexed minimum wage adjustments to New Brunswick’s consumer price index to allow employers and employees to be better prepared for increases when they occur.

In 2022, it temporarily moved away from indexing to allow for a course correction that was necessary to make the province more competitive and improve the standard of living for minimum wage earners.

There are about 19,000 minimum wage earners in the province, or about 5.7 per cent of the paid workforce.