How much do you need to earn to get by in BC? If you live in Metro Vancouver, the answer is $27.05 an hour, 5.3% more than last year. This is what two adults working full-time need to earn each to provide for a household of 2 adults and 2 children. And other communities across BC have also seen increases in their living wage.
Today, the CCPA–BC Office and Living Wage BC are releasing the 2024 Living Wage Update.
The underlying issue throughout the report is the steady rise in the cost of living—particularly for housing and food—that continues to drive the affordability crisis. This is reflected in higher living wages across the board in BC, highlighting the need for bolder and coordinated efforts from all levels of government to both increase wages and lower cost pressures.
To give you an idea of the severity of the situation: in doing this year’s calculations we found that any financial relief from government measures to ameliorate cost of living increases is wiped out by the soaring cost of rent. Housing costs in Metro Vancouver alone rose 9.5% compared to last year.
After housing, food is the second most expensive item in the living wage family budget, increasing by 3.3% since last year. Child care expenses are the third most expensive item, rising 1.9% in the same period.
The sizable elephant in the room is the growing gap between the living wage and the minimum wage. In Metro Vancouver alone, nearly half a million workers (37% of all paid employees) earn less than a living wage.
Lastly, we’re glad to announce that after hearing feedback from supporters like you, this year we produced preliminary estimates of living wages for two additional family types: a single working-aged adult and a single parent with a young child.
We hope this report helps spark deeper conversations among policymakers, business and community organizations to tackle the systemic factors—like inadequate wages, soaring rents and insufficient public supports—that play an outsized role in the affordability crisis. Building a more inclusive and sustainable economy in BC is possible—and necessary—and by providing an evidence-based calculation of the living wage, we hope to ground these conversations and build the political will for change.
For a living wage,
Iglika Ivanova is a senior economist and the public interest researcher at the CCPA–BC Office. She is also a Co-Director of the Understanding Precarity in BC Project.