Minimum wage workers got a 75 cent per hour raise to $19.75 on Sept. 1, marking the first increase in Nunavut's minimum wage under the new indexing formula.
Back in 2024, the Government of Nunavut tied the minimum wage to a combination of the Iqaluit consumer price index (CPI), or how much everyday goods cost in the capital, and the average hourly wage.
Modest increases in the cost of living and the average hourly wage over the past year led to a four per cent raise in the minimum wage. If the CPI or average wages decline, minimum wage will stay the same.
Statistics Canada doesn't have data for territory-wide CPI and instead relies on prices in Iqaluit.
Nunavut maintains its distinction of having the highest minimum wage in Canada, which the territory has held since increasing pay to $19 per hour in 2024.
All increases are announced in July and go into effect by September of every year, starting this year.
“This new approach is a positive development for employers and employees in Nunavut, helping to ensure fairness, transparency, and predictability around our minimum wage rate increases,” Justice Minister Pamela Hakongak Gross stated when the wage increase was first announced in July.
During deliberations to devise the new minimum wage formula, the GN considered a minimum wage as high as $25 per hour before settling on its current level.
Nunavut has highest prices and lowest disposable income in the country, a 2021 Statistics Canada analysis showed.
