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The federal minimum wage will rise by 40 cents next week, a scheduled increase that keeps the wage in line with inflation.
Annual increase coming April 1 to keep wage in line with inflation
CBC News · Posted: Mar 24, 2026 11:27 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago
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The federal minimum wage is increasing by 40 cents per hour on April 1, 2026. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
The federal minimum wage will rise by 40 cents next week, a scheduled increase that keeps it in line with inflation.
The wage will jump to $18.15 an hour from $17.75 on April 1, a government news release said Tuesday.
The wage is adjusted every year based on Canada’s annual average consumer price index of the previous calendar year. In 2025, that was 2.1 per cent. The new wage is then rounded up to the nearest five-cent increment.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced a federal minimum wage in 2021. It applies to workers in federally regulated industries such as transport, banking and telecommunications.
Most employees in Canada are covered by their provincial or territorial rates. Those range from a high of $19.75 in Nunavut to a low of $15 in Alberta.
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