About 40 per cent of families living in Metro Vancouver earn less than the city's living wage of $18.17 an hour, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
"We can not think of luxuries, we can not think of holidays, we can not think of any better education, anything better for my child," Surrey resident Preeti Misra said.
Misra and her husband each make $15 an hour but they say it's just enough to get by.
Seth Klein, B.C. director of the CCPA, said employers can help by becoming advocates for a higher child tax benefit, for more affordable transit, affordable housing and universal publicly funded childcare.
"Because if any of those things happened the cash value of the living wage would be less," Klein said.
Labour minister Murray Coell said while the minimum wage has been frozen at $8 an hour in B.C., the province's average wage is at $22 an hour.
Misra said she'd like to go back to school so she can find a job that pays more but her current income doesn't leave room for anything but the absolutely necessities.
"I am not able to afford my tuition fee which is about $10,000 for any course I want to take up. So here I am," she said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry
