Earning a modest living in Vancouver continues to grow increasingly difficult, according to a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
$18.17 is the hourly living wage needed for two parents working full time, who are raising two children to afford basic expenses such as rental housing, childcare, groceries and transportation.
The per-hour amount increased $1.43 from the last calculation made in 2008 or roughly double the rate inflation.
Seth Klein, co-author of Working for a Living Wage 2010, said the hard choices struggling families must make today are based on more than deciding on living in the suburbs and commuting work.
"One way or another a family raising kids is looking at costs like these," he explained. "If you don't make it in an hourly wage you make up for it in time, which is to say, you work a second or third job and you never see your kids."
To ensure the calculation, which considers taxation and government benefits, is conservative, the living wage total excludes common expenses families endure such as credit card and debt payments, savings for retirement and children's future education, as well as the cost of caring for an elderly family member.
Klein found key drivers to the increase are the higher cost of nutritious food, rent increases, and childcare, which jumped by $113 per month over 2008 statistics.
He suggested government enhancing public childcare programs could reduce the financial burden.
Governments, along with health and transit authorities, can also become a role model in the community by paying its staff and contract workers a living wage. New Westminster approved a decision last week to pay all employees and contractors a living wage.
"If enough of them go the route New Westminster has gone what happens is they start to create a market for those private service providers, like food, janitorial and security, to pay the living wage," he said. "Those companies in turn start to experience a recruitment and retention advantage over their competitors and that's where you really start to see the potential to bring up the earnings of these low-wage families."