Wages vs. inflation: As costs rise, living wage advocates hope to see B.C. better address affordability
Wages vs. inflation: As costs rise, living wage advocates hope to see B.C. better address affordability
Wages vs. inflation: As costs rise, living wage advocates hope to see B.C. better address affordability
With Canada’s inflation rate hitting a 31-year high last month, people are paying a lot more for many basic needs including food and shelter, and wages have not kept up.
While B.C.’s minimum wage is set to rise next month, some living wage advocates want to see the province do more to address affordability.
For over two years now, Surrey-based power washing and cleaning company Revive Services has been a certified living wage employer. Owner and founder David Moerman said it’s helped them with recruiting and retaining employees.
“It’s getting more expensive to live here as the weeks go by, so as a business owner, I want to ensure my team is taken care of, they can pay for their fuel, pay for their groceries,” he said of his 10-person team. “If they’re not happy and taken care of outside of work, they’re not going to be the best version of themself at work, so I want to make sure they’re not stressed out financially.”
Last month, Canada’s inflation rate rose to 6.8 percent from the previous April, while average hourly wages rose 3.3 percent year over year, according to Statistics Canada.
Living Wage for Families B.C. organizer Anastasia French says the current living wage calculated for Metro Vancouver is $20.52 an hour.
“It takes into account all of the costs that a family of four has, so that’s the cost of shelter, the cost of food, child care, really the essentials,” she said.
“We’ve now nearly got 400 living wage employers across the province, which has doubled within the two years of the pandemic.”
B.C.’s minimum wage is set to rise to $15.65 cents an hour on June 1, which is the highest rate among the provinces. The increase is based on last year’s average annual inflation rate.
“On one level, any increase to the minimum wage is good,” French said. “But there is still that significant gap between the minimum wage and the living wage.”
The province has been gathering feedback on that gap, and Labour Minister Harry Bains is now waiting on a report from the Fair Wages Commission, which he said had been delayed by the pandemic.
“It should be in my hands soon,” Bains said. “And I think we will learn from that report what do we do between the living wage and the minimum wage.”
Senior policy analyst with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Jairo Yunis said imposing more costs on small businesses could end up hurting employment.
“We acknowledge the cost of living in B.C. has skyrocketed in the last few years, but there are better ways to tackle the affordability crisis that don’t involve piling up all these costs to small businesses,” he said. “What the government can do to tackle inflation and tackle the affordability crisis should be to ease some of the supply side constraints that are partially fuelling the problem especially for instance in energy markets and housing.”
Yunis added just 46 per cent of small businesses in the province are back at their normal revenue level since the pandemic, “so we’re not out of the woods yet.”
French said her group also wants to see the government do more to address overall affordability, so that at some point the living wage could potentially come down.
“We know that the majority of families that are living in poverty in B.C. and across Canada are working, and they’re working really, really hard to try and make ends meet,” she said.
“Maybe you can’t reach all the way to the living wage right now…maybe bring your staff up slightly this year and then slightly more next year. Also it’s worth stressing that the living wage can be made up of both base wage and any additional benefits that you offer. So if you have a health and dental plan, that lowers your living wage by about a dollar an hour…if you offer any additional paid time off beyond the statutory minimums or any additional paid sick leave beyond the five days or vacation beyond the ten days, that can go towards your living wage requirements.”
French said their next living wage calculation will be made in November. Employers that are
part of the program have six months to bring workers up to the latest level in order to be certified.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to resign, his office said Thursday, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralyzed Britain's government.
A well-known Ukrainian paramedic who was held prisoner by Russian and separatist forces for three months after being captured in the southeastern city of Mariupol has accused her guards of psychological and physical torture during her time in captivity.
Video has emerged showing a worker dangling in the air above a Toronto construction site after accidently getting entangled in a tagline attached to a crane.
Several vaccine manufacturers are racing to develop formulas that take into account the more infectious Omicron variant now driving cases, while policymakers are laying the groundwork for another large-scale vaccine blitz.
The federal government has no intention of dropping the controversial ArriveCan app because it gives the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) key health information about travellers who test positive for COVID-19 through testing at airports and land borders, senior government sources tell CTV News.
Patrick Brown is alleging political corruption played a role in his disqualification from the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race, a move that came following allegations that his campaign violated election financing rules.
Jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner returns to a Russian court on Thursday amid a growing chorus of calls for Washington to do more to secure her release nearly five months after she was arrested on drug charges.
Despite being disqualified by the Conservative Party of Canada from becoming its next leader, ousted candidate Patrick Brown's name will still appear on the ballot.
First Nations art, from hand-carved masks to totem poles, draws on generations of tradition and skill and can take months to craft. But a flood of fakes and commercial knock-offs produced in Asia and eastern Europe are exploiting Indigenous culture, the artists say, and robbing them of revenue.
The driver of a logging truck was airlifted to hospital in Victoria after he was pinned inside the vehicle following a rollover crash on Wednesday morning.
The number of Vancouver Island marmots in the wild increased this week, with 10 of the critically endangered rodents released onto a Mount Washington ski run.
Calgary drivers might be asking why the price of gasoline is more expensive in their energy rich province where oil is refined and extracted than in Ontario, but one retail expert claims to have the answer.
Wade Stene, who admitted to kidnapping and sexually assaulting an eight-year-old Edmonton girl, was sentenced to 15.5 years behind bars Wednesday afternoon.
Emergency crews were called to a Mill Woods school on Wednesday after a security guard reportedly experienced irritation on their hands after finding a white powder.
Residents living in Toronto’s west end say they have been left utterly exhausted after an alleged nightclub opened up at the base of their condominium.
A mother from Nova Scotia is speaking out about her recent travel experience through Toronto Pearson Airport after a WestJet flight delay left her and her daughters sleeping on a nursing room floor.
The leader of Quebec's Liberal Party paused her vacation briefly on Wednesday to react to the news that two young emergency room doctors have quit their jobs in their hometown of Montreal to work in Toronto.
A prominent Montreal drag queen who recently faced pressure from critics over library readings to young children says her storytime events scheduled for the fall were abruptly called off for unknown reasons.
Wide Receiver Tevin Jones got his first regular season Canadian Football League (CFL) start in week four and will look to continue the momentum against Ottawa.
The ex-boyfriend of Cassidy Bernard has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter and a consecutive three years for child abandonment in connection with the young mother's death.
Whether you’re looking for a change of pace, a breath of fresh air, or a glimpse into nature, northern Ontario has an outdoor oasis waiting to be discovered.
The chair of the Station Mall Merchants Association says news of the mall's sale to a southern Ontario holding company brings to a close years of uncertainty regarding the future of the property.
Tenants of the Tiger Lofts, an affordable apartment building in Cambridge, say they’re being “renovicted” and won’t be allowed to stay after extensive renovations.
