TORONTO - Thursday's 25-cent raise in Ontario's minimum wage is the last one workers can expect for the foreseeable future, Labour Minister Steve Peters said Wednesday as critics continued to call for a "real living wage.''

Peters said he's proud the Liberal government fulfilled its election promise to raise the minimum wage to $8 an hour while not hurting businesses.

"Ontario did not see a raise in the minimum wage for nine years, and we campaigned in 2003 (saying) we would be moving the minimum wage,'' he said.

"The minimum wage has been phased in over a four-year period, from $6.85 an hour to $8 an hour. This is an increase of 17 per cent in the minimum wage for Ontario workers.''

There are no planned minimum wage hikes on the horizon, and the government will now sit down to discuss future increases. Peters said the government wants to give businesses time to plan and prepare for a raise in payrolls, so any increases wouldn't come overnight.

Ontario New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton called the 25-cent increase "far too low,'' and said a more appropriate minimum wage would be $10 an hour.

"It's better than not going up by 25 cents but it still doesn't address the real issue: the minimum wage in Ontario is not a living wage,'' Hampton said.

"You cannot pay the rent, you cannot put food on the table, and you cannot look after your family working for minimum wage. We need at least a $10-an-hour minimum wage for people to be able to do that -- to put food on the table, pay the rent and look after themselves.''

But Peters said the minimum wage increase makes Ontario's employers among the highest-paying in the country, trailing only the territories, where workers in Nunavut get a minimum of $8.50 an hour, and those in the Northwest Territories and Yukon get $8.25. The rate is also $8 an hour in British Columbia -- and will be later this year in Manitoba and Quebec -- while the national low is $7 in Alberta, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara has said the province's economy could not absorb an immediate $2 hourly hike for the estimated 200,000 Ontario residents currently earning the minimum wage. About 1.2 million people in Ontario earn less than $10 an hour.

Sorbara has noted that almost two-thirds of those earning minimum wage in Ontario are young people who still live at home with their parents, so another increase would not specifically target the working poor.

Hampton argued that a $2 increase to the minimum wage makes fiscal sense, since people at the low end of the pay scale would be spending the extra money in their communities and helping the economy.

"People who work for the minimum wage don't get their paycheque and then take a Caribbean holiday, they don't get their paycheque and invest half of it in an American mutual fund, they don't spend it on an expensive foreign car,'' Hampton said.

"They spend virtually all of their disposal income virtually immediately in the local community, which helps to generate more economic activity.''

But Peters said a $2 hike in the minimum wage is unrealistic, and he doubts the NDP would follow through with it if they were in power.

"When you look at the past history in this province, governments of all stripes have taken a phased approach to raising the minimum wage,'' Peters said.

"There has never been a substantive $2-an-hour increase.''

"The NDP may choose to make this an election issue, but I think they need to look at their own record of how they approached it.''