Ontario's recent decision to hike its minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost Metro tens of millions of dollars next year and put pressure on the entire industry, the grocery chain's CEO said Tuesday. "The announced minimum wage increase in Ontario will put significant pressure on our industry in 2018," Eric R. La Fleche said. "We estimate the impact of the increase in the minimum wage recently announced in Ontario to be approximately $45 to $50 million on an annualized basis." Metro rival Loblaw said last month that it expects rising wage pressures will cost it $190 million next year. Metro's overall sales edged up 1.4 per cent or $58.7 million to $4.07 billion, but same-store sales dropped 0.2 per cent.

Source: CBC News August 15, 2017 14:48 UTC