Thousands of people in Metro Vancouver, with full-time jobs, are still living below the poverty line according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Metro Vancouver has the second-highest rate of working poor in Canada, second only to Toronto.
Working poor is defined as someone between the ages of 18 and 64 who earns at least $3,000 a year but earns less than Statistics Canada’s Low Income Measure after taxes. They cannot be a student and cannot live with parents or relatives.
David Little lives in Burnaby and works at a warehouse making $12.32 an hour. He also does temp work at another agency, but finds he has to borrow from either his friends or his parents in order to get by.
“It’s very tough trying to make ends meet,” he said. “I end up having to use the food bank once a week to get some extra food on the table. I have additional costs in that I have to pay child support. So making ends meet is very difficult.”
Little understands his housing cost is low as he only pays $480 a month in rent.
“For what I get, it’s very very reasonable,” he said. “I’d never be able to afford what I’ve got anywhere else. I was fortunate to find what I did.”
The BC Federation of Labour (BCFED) has been leading a campaign recently to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in B.C. In September, the minimum wage will go up to $10.45 an hour, but Little says that is not nearly enough.
He would also like to see more subsidized housing.
“A lot of people are struggling with a mortgage as well,” he said.
The report found that Richmond has the second-highest working poverty rate in B.C. at 10.4 per cent, followed by Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.
The latest study was done in 2012 and compares the numbers from 2006. Almost every municipality saw a slight rise in the number of working poor.
In Metro Vancouver in 2012, 54 per cent of the working poor were married or living common law, 42 per cent had dependent children and 24 per cent were between the ages of 18 and 29.
However, the majority were between the ages of 30 and 54 years old.