The living wage in the Comox Valley has gone up over 10 per cent in the last year, according to the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives and Living Wage BC.
The calculation, which is the hourly rate two parents working full-time must earn to support a family of four, is now $24.36, up 10.63 per cent from 2023. For Port Hardy, the wage stayed the same at $24.88 per hour. The living wage report does not include figures for Campbell River. The largest increase over last year's living wage in B.C. was in Kamloops, where they saw a 13.3 per cent jump (though the report says that part of the increase is due to a change in methodology), followed by the Fraser Valley, jumping by 12.44 per cent. The Comox Valley saw the third-highest jump in the province. The community with the highest living wage is Whistler, at $28.09 per hour, followed by Clayoquot Sound at $27.42 per hour. According to the report, the lowest living wage in B.C. is $20.81 per hour in Grand Forks.
Minimum wage in the province was increased to $17.40 in June, 2024.
The report, which features Metro Vancouver as a case-study, says that nearly half a million workers in that community (or 37 per cent) earn less than the living wage.
“Hundreds of thousands of B.C. workers earn less than the living wage and face impossible choices like buy groceries or heat the house, keep up with bills or pay the rent on time.” says Anastasia French, Provincial Manager of Living Wage BC. “Racialized workers and women are disproportionately affected by low wages in a region where the cost of living keeps climbing.”
The report says that though inflation has decreased, increased costs to essentials has continued to push the living wage up. That is despite financial relief provided by governments, such as affordable childcare benefits and increases to income-tested benefits. Those benefits have been outpaced by the rising cost of rent, it explains.
“Rent has been the most expensive item in the Metro Vancouver living wage family budget since the calculation was first produced in 2008 and this year is no exception,” says Iglika Ivanova, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office senior economist and the report's lead author. Metro Vancouver was the main case study in the province-wide release, though increases in rents have been felt across the province.
Some employers in the Comox Valley have been striving to pay a living wage, but "voluntary action alone, however, cannot solve the serious affordability crisis felt across the province. We need coordinated efforts from all levels of government to both increase wages and lower cost pressures so that all workers can thrive,” French said.
The calculation is based on the needs of two parents with young children, but it is also meant to support all workers, so young adults are not discouraged to have children because of low wages, and that older workers can have extra income as they age.
“Some preliminary estimates we have produced, however, suggest that the living wage may not be sufficient to support single parents and single people in Metro-Vancouver. In other communities this is not the case and we want to explore this in more detail in the future," Ivanova said. “The living wage affords a decent, but modest, standard of living without the extras many of us take for granted. It does not cover credit card, loan or other debt payments, savings for retirement or for children’s future education or the costs of caring for a disabled, seriously ill or elderly family member."
