A sharp increase in the region’s cost of living—primarily due to soaring housing costs and highlighting the region’s affordability crisis—has led Metro Vancouver’s living wage to rise to $27.05 per hour, 5.3 per cent higher than last year.
Living wage is the hourly rate that each of two parents working full-time must earn to support a family of four in Metro Vancouver. The living wage is enough for a family with two young children to cover the necessities, support the healthy development of their children, escape severe financial stress and participate in the social, civic and cultural lives of their communities. It affords a decent if still very modest standard of living without the extras many of us take for granted.
However, a strikingly large gap exists between the 2024 Metro Vancouver living wage and BC’s current minimum wage of $17.40 per hour. Nearly half a million workers—37 per cent of all paid employees in Metro Vancouver— earn less than the living wage.
“Hundreds of thousands of BC workers earn less than the living wage and face impossible choices like buy groceries or heat the house, keep up with bills or pay the rent on time.” says Anastasia French, Provincial Manager of Living Wage BC. “Racialized workers and women are disproportionately affected by low wages in a region where the cost of living keeps climbing.”
Although inflation has come down from the historic highs recorded in 2022, the cost of living—and particularly housing—in Metro Vancouver continues to increase rapidly, intensifying the affordability crisis. Government initiatives to help households absorb some of the cost increases, such as ongoing child care affordability improvements, the gradual roll-out of the new Canadian Dental Care Plan and increases to key income-tested BC government benefits, have helped to remove pressure from stretched family budgets. However, the savings are entirely consumed by soaring prices, especially for food and shelter, which continue to rise faster than general inflation.
The living wage is a powerful tool to ensure paid work results in a decent standard of living and enables a life that is about more than a constant struggle to get by.In addition to Metro Vancouver, the living wage was calculated in 24 other BC communities.
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. Grand Forks has BC’s lowest living wage at $20.81 per hour.
The financial relief provided by government measures, such as affordable childcare programs and increases in income-tested benefits, was intended to help offset rising costs, but is outpaced by the rising cost of rent.
“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,” says Iglika Ivanova, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office senior economist and the report’s lead author.
Shelter costs for the Metro Vancouver living wage family increased 9.5 per cent this year—an additional $276 per month.
Over 450 certified living wage employers across the province have stepped up to pay both direct and contract employees wages sufficient to support families. Employers who pay their workers a living wage have found real benefits from doing so, says French.
“Voluntary action alone, however, cannot solve the serious affordability crisis felt across the province. We need coordinated efforts from all levels of government to both increase wages and lower cost pressures so that all workers can thrive,” she adds.
