At least one expert says there's little question the minimum wage hike on January 1st have a ``trickle up'' effect to raise wages for more than just the lowest paid workers.
A professor emeritus at York University's Schulich School of Business in Toronto says the question is how pervasive the ripple effect will be for employees with higher skill levels to start asking for raises now the minimum wage is close to what they're earning.
Bernard Wolf says it's likely a considerable number of employers in Ontario will hike wages for those employees and for those facing a cost-of-living increase as the price of goods goes up to offset the higher labour cost.
He adds that for employers already making the move, they benefit from positioning themselves as the good guy compared to other companies that raised the ire of consumers for clawing back employee benefits and other perks instead.