A new report has found that residents of Metro Vancouver need to make $27.05 an hour to earn a living wage, a 5.3-per cent increase from last year.
The wage, calculated by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office and Living Wage BC, is the hourly rate that each of two parents working full-time must earn to support a family of four based on the cost of living in a particular community.
B.C.’s current minimum wage is $17.40 per hour.
The report found that nearly half a million workers — 37 per cent of all paid employees in Metro Vancouver — earn less than the living wage.
Anastasia French, provincial manager at Living Wage BC, told Global News that the living wage is what a worker needs to pay for basic essentials like food and rent.
“What we found this year is that the living wage really varies depending on where you live,” she said.
“All the way from Grand Forks with the lowest living wage in B.C. at $20.81, all the way up to $28 in Whistler. But it’s Metro Vancouver, which is where the vast majority of people in B.C. live.”
French said factors such as housing costs and food keep going up at a rate that is unaffordable for many workers.
Government’s financial relief measures, such as affordable childcare programs, were intended to help offset those rising costs. However, the report found that those measures are outpaced by rising rents.
“Rent has been the most expensive item in the Metro Vancouver living wage family budget since the calculation was first produced in 2008 and this year is no exception,” Iglika Ivanova, senior economist at the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the report’s lead author, said in a statement.
Shelter costs for a family in Metro Vancouver increased 9.5 per cent this year, which is roughly an additional $276 a month.
Metro Vancouver’s living wage is the third highest in the province, behind Whistler at $28.89 per hour and Clayoquot Sound at $27.42 per hour.
“We recognize that $27 is a really high wage, for many employers it might be out of reach,” French said.
“It’s worth factoring in any benefits that you offer because that might make you a living wage more manageable.”
In the Interior, the living wage in Kelowna is now $25.77, which is an increase of 4.76 per cent from 2023.