2022 Update
Living expenses in BC, particularly for housing and food, are continuing to rise for families, meaning higher wages are required for working families to afford their basic needs.
This new report, published in partnership between the CCPA-BC and Living Wage for Families BC, calculates the living wage in 22 communities across BC and finds that BC’s minimum wage of $15.65 per hour is less than the living wage in each of those communities. It also shows that family expenses have increased since 2019 in Metro Vancouver and Victoria at a rate higher than inflation.
In addition to looking at the costs of basic family needs, the calculations in this report include changes in government investments that make life more affordable for families. Recent government investments in child care and other policy measures to support families have helped to prevent a greater increase in the living wage. The report finds that further increasing those investments, with initiatives like $10-a-day child care, can help make lives more affordable for families.
Attachments
2022 Working for a Living Wage Technical Appendix
2022 Living Wage BC Calculation Spreadsheet
About the authors
Iglika Ivanova is a Senior Economist and the Public Interest Researcher at the CCPA’s BC Office. She researches and writes on key social and economic challenges facing BC and Canada, including poverty, economic insecurity and labour market shifts towards more precarious work. Iglika is Co-Director of the Understanding Precarity in BC Project (UP-BC). Iglika also investigates issues of government finance, tax policy and privatization and how they relate to the accessibility and quality of public services. She is particularly interested in the potential for public policy to build a more just, inclusive and sustainable economy. Follow Iglika on Twitter
Shannon is the director of CCPA-BC and co-director of the Corporate Mapping Project. Her research interests include social movements, framing, environmental communication, corporate power and democratic capacity. Outside her day-to-day work life at CCPA, Shannon has taught in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, and volunteered as a board member with organizations like the Wilderness Committee, CCEC Credit Union and the Vancouver Public Library.
Anastasia (she/her) has been managing the Living Wage Campaign since June 2020. She has a decade of experience managing campaigns and projects that have changed laws and policies in the UK and Canada and raised millions for good causes. In her spare time, she enjoys trying to visit every park, library and brewery in Vancouver.
