The government of Saskatchewan has announced a moderate increase to the province's minimum wage rate. 

On October 1, Saskatchewan's minimum wage will increase from $11.06/hour to $11.32/hour. 

According to a news release, increases to the basic and spousal income tax exemptions, the dependent child tax credit and the Saskatchewan low-income tax credit allow the province’s minimum wage earners and other low-income earners to keep more of their money. 

Officials said the increase was calculated based on an indexation formula used by the province since 2011. Annually reviewed, the index takes into account changes to the consumer price index and the average hourly wage for the previous year. 

However, some are skeptical that the modest increase will make a difference at all. 

Lori Johb is the President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour. She pointed out that even after the increase come October, Saskatchewan will still have the lowest minimum wage rate in the country, which she calls "disgraceful." 

"I don't think it'll change anything for workers," said Johb. "The increase is so minimal, that I don't believe they'll even notice a difference. So really, it's quite disgraceful for a province as rich as ours to have the worst minimum wage in the country."

Johb says she's seeing more Saskatchewanians falling financially behind with an increasing amount of people working multiple jobs and says the increase of 26 cents/hour simply isn't enough. 

"We know that people are living in our province working more than one job full-time and still having to stop at the food bank on their way home because they just can't make ends meet. And anybody that is a single income family, there's just no way they can make it, I don't know what they do every month. There's just no way, it's so far below the living wage."

According to the Government of Saskatchewan's website, this is the eleventh increase to minimum wages in Saskatchewan since 2007, when the minimum wage was $7.95.

Manitoba currently has the second-lowest minimum wage at $11.35 an hour, which is increasing to $11.65 an hour on October 1. Alberta has the country’s highest minimum wage at $15.00 an hour.