Companies divided on raising prices or slashing benefits to handle wage hike
TORONTO — Signs announcing price increases and letters to employees slashing benefits have grown rampant in Ontario, revealing two very different approaches businesses have gravitated toward in the wake of province’s minimum wage hike.
Some Tim Hortons franchises have faced significant backlash after cutting paid breaks and forcing workers to cover some of their dental and health benefits to compensate for the minimum wage jump from $11.60 and hour to $14 an hour last week, while chains such as Pizza Nova say they will be upping prices instead.
But how some companies settle on the route to take might have come down to a factor as simple as timing, said Sylvain Charlebois, the dean of Dalhousie University’s faculty of management.
He said there is little to no evidence that Restaurant Brands International Inc., the parent company of Tim Hortons, and franchise owners worked on a strategy before Ontario’s new minimum wage rate came into effect Jan. 1. “It is not a surprise. Everyone knew it was coming,” Charlebois said.