How employers desperate for workers are throwing cash at applicants

A trip to the mall in Fredericton led to much more than a pair of new shoes for Hannah McLeod. 

The 21-year-old saw a hiring sign at a shoe store, Journeys, and decided to apply. At the time, McLeod was making $15 an hour at a potato-processing plant in Florenceville-Bristol, N.B., northwest of the city.

She had no experience in retail and assumed that for selling shoes, she would get the provincial minimum wage, which is currently $11.75 in New Brunswick, though it will reach $13.75 next October.

But after her interview with Journeys, she was offered a better job than she expected — and for more money.