What to know
- The living wage in the Greater Toronto Area has risen to $27.60, nearly $10 higher than Ontario’s new $17.60 minimum wage.
- Soaring housing costs are driving the increase, making it difficult for minimum-wage workers to cover basic expenses.
- Many Torontonians say rising rents and essential costs continue to make city living unaffordable despite the wage hike.
One month after the Ontario government raised the minimum wage to $17.60, a new report shows that the living wage in Toronto is nearly $10 higher, leaving some Torontonians stunned.
A recent report from the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN) indicates that the living wage in the Greater Toronto Area has increased from $26 to $27.60.
This comes after the Ontario government upped minimum wage from $17.20 to $17.60 on Oct. 1, an annualized wage increase of 2.4 per cent which is based on the Ontario Consumer Price Index.
According to the report, the Greater Toronto Area continues to have the highest living wage rate in the province, compared to areas like London, Elgin, and Oxford where the rate is $21.05, the lowest in the province.
Director of Communications for OLWN, Craig Pickthorne, says housing costs are driving the increase.
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“Shelter takes up about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the living wage calculation,” he said. “Everything else is at 10 per cent to 15 per cent for transportation, food, childcare… it’s really shelter that’s making that difference.”
Pickthorne says the $10 gap between living wage and the newly implemented minimum wage is a cause for concern.
“There’s just no place in the province where the minimum wage is enough to live,” he said. “At the end of the week, at that job [in the] GTA, you’re going to be short by $336.”
Pickthorne says there’s often hesitancy to increase the minimum wage substantially based on beliefs that they’re not meant to be careers and only meant for young people entering the workforce, but he insists that is false.
“Only about one in four workers at minimum wage are under the age of 20, so that means that the majority of workers at this wage level have bills to pay and households to support, and that’s a fact,” he said.
Pickthorne adds that racialized people and newcomers are also more likely to be working a minimum wage job.
TORONTONIANS WEIGH IN
As both the living wage and minimum wage continue to rise, some Torontonians like Daryl B. tells Now Toronto that the minimum wage simply isn’t enough to meet the needs of all Ontarians.
“There’s a difference between living in Northern Ontario or Southern Ontario,” he said. “They obviously need to bring down the rents in the city, and then it would be an equal playing field for everyone in the province.”
Ronaldo O. also agrees that living in the city has become increasingly expensive and says he’s noticed that essential items such as groceries have become more unaffordable, and believes the minimum wage increase might not change the quality of life for many.
“The previous number was not enough, I doubt the new number is going to be enough,” he said. “Everything like the phone plans are going up, Wi-Fi is going up, everything is going up.”
He says while it may be a longshot, he hopes the government can increase the wage to meet the living wage rates.
“I don’t see, I don’t see them bumping it up to 27 in the nearest future… I’d like to think you [the government is] doing work, but I feel like maybe [they] can do better,” he said.
