Do you think Ontario is doing the right thing by increasing our minimum wage here from $10.25 to $11.00 in June 2014?

All that does is give inflation another boost. That extra money does not come from trees or thin air, it comes from consumers' pockets. The numbers change but the situation remains the same.

I think it might have a more negative effect than a positive one. But it probably won't have a huge impact either way. I did notice that before the wage freeze, the self-checkouts were popping up more and more and machines to replace low-wage workers were more common. One nearby bank completely got rid of tellers. The min. wage freeze seemed to freeze that trend too... no more places converted to self-checkout. Maybe that trend will resume. That would be bad.

Yes.

That's always a tough call. Of course, it would be very hard to live on minimum wage anywhere. Even though there's the notion that the increases get passed to consumers, I do think it's right for governments to make sure the minimum is decent.