The provincial government says the minimum wage will move to $13 an hour, effective October 1. Saskatchewan will continue to have the lowest minimum wage in Canada until then at $11.81 an hour.

“World events continue to put upward pressure on the cost of living in Saskatchewan and across Canada,” Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan said in a media release.

“Our government is committed to ensuring life is affordable for our low-income residents by increasing the minimum wage over the next three years.”

The Saskatchewan Party government is also committing to two additional minimum wage increases to reach the $15 an hour level by October 2024.  There will be a $1 bumps on October 1, 2023 and October 1, 2024.

The planned increases “reflect a market adjustment, rather than using the province’s traditional indexation formula.” The formula gives equal weight to changes to the Consumer Price Index and the average hourly wage.

The Saskatchewan NDP have been lobbying the provincial government for several years to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.