By Joanne Steventon
Local bar owner Edgar Mitchell anticipates another blow to profits with the recent Ontario minimum wage increase, a year and a half after suffering from the impact of the no smoking bylaw.
“It’s just another slap in the face,” says Edgar Mitchell, owner of the Duke of Somerset pub.
With the minimum wage increase implemented by the province Feb. 1, restaurant owners are now required to raise their minimum wage for liquor serving staff from $5.95 per hour to $6.20 per hour. Over the next three years it will gradually go up to $6.95 per hour.
Mitchell says he doesn’t mind paying his staff more, but that it’s going to make it more difficult for his pub to stay afloat. He says his business is still suffering from the losses incurred by the anti-smoking bylaw, implemented Aug. 1, 2001.
“It’s not unreasonable,” he says. “It’s just that this industry has had a very difficult year and it comes at the most difficult cash flow time of the year.”
The anti-smoking bylaw prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants, private clubs and legion halls in the City of Ottawa. While this move was a breath of fresh air for non-smokers, bar owners like Mitchell say they’ve noticed a considerable loss in clientele.
“They’re staying at home, they’re going to friends, they’re smoking less which is fine and they’re going everywhere outside of town,” says Mitchell.
John Howard, a co-owner of the Royal Oak bars, says his business also suffered from the bylaw.
“There’s no question that the no-smoking bylaw hurt pubs,” he says. “But it’s over, business is back.”
Howard says they’re ready to handle the mandatory pay increase for serving staff, which he says will ultimately lead to higher prices for customers.
“Eventually it’s inevitable.,” he says. “Prices go up and costs have to be passed on,”
Other private businesses in Centretown don’t seem phased by the mandatory pay increase, as most already pay their staff above the current minimum wage.
Over the next three years the regular minimum wage will increase from $6.80 per hour to $8.00 per hour.
“To me, minimum wage is low and they should be getting more money,” says Husnu Kilicaslan, owner of Anatolian Pita & Deli Garden, across the street from the Duke of Somerset.
He says he will keep paying his employees above the minimum wage.
“Always I will pay more than the minimum wage,” he says. “I will pay my people more money, because it will make them happy and they will make me happy too.”
But Mitchell says the combination of the anti-smoking bylaw and the wage increase will lead to the demise of his business.
“I’ll be out of business shortly,” says Mitchell.