The cost of housing remains the driving force fuelling the steady rise in the living wage across the province.
In Greater Victoria, the number climbed 5.43 per cent from last year to $26.78 an hour, as calculated by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office and Living Wage BC.
A living wage is the hourly rate required for a worker to afford necessities, escape severe financial stress and be a part of the community.
The report released this month, shows that number continues to rise across the province, driven by the rising costs of living, particularly for housing and food.
The biggest factor in Greater Victoria’s housing costs is directly tied to rent increases, said Douglas King, executive director of Together Against Poverty Society (TAPS).
“The last two to three years we’ve seen these trends where rent is increased across the board,” he said. “More importantly the amount of rent increase that occurs between a tenancy, that’s what’s fuelling the overall rise.”
Average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada fell by 1.2 per cent year-over-year in October, according to the latest National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.
That report found that Victoria recorded the ninth highest rents in Canada, with a one-bedroom fetching $2,151 – a one per cent decrease from the previous month but up two per cent from October 2023. A two-bedroom in the city is going for an average $2,866, up one per cent from the previous year.
It’s the number one thing people grapple with, King said.
With the election over, the non-profit plans to continue its bid to lobby for change in rent control, asking the NDP to look at measures put in during the first term and re-evaluate where they’re not working.
The need to ask the question: “What do we need to do to see rents go down? And that has to be the goal.”
TAPS calls for a look at vacancy control packaged with an overall consideration of rent control, which is rarely tied to income or operating income of a landlord.
“It’s separated from this concept of why a landlord would need to raise the rent,” King said.
He says a property owner can say they need to raise the rent to cover operating expenses, without the need being there.
“Rent control in a tenancy doesn’t mean anything if ultimately the rent still goes up over time.”
Cost of living, primarily housing costs, is also cited as the reason Metro Vancouver’s living wage rose 5.3 per cent to $27.05 per hour compared to last year. Metro Vancouver's living wage is the third highest in the province, behind Whistler at $28.89 per hour and Clayoquot Sound at $27.42 per hour.
The differences in housing costs and access to transportation fuel the disparity in living wages across the province.
Grand Forks has B.C.’s lowest living wage at $20.81 per hour.
Minimum wage in B.C. is $17.40 per hour. That’s still more than the provincial disability rate which is just shy of $15 an hour or about $18,000 a year, King said.
“We’re saying the living wage for earned income to live comfortably in the city is three times as much as what people are getting on provincial disability.”
A healthy host of businesses in the region are certified living wage employers including the City of Victoria and TAPS itself.
Those organizations are committed to paying staff and contract employees a living wage and to require major service providers to also pay a living wage.
“Thankfully for us, we meet that designation so it’s easy for us to say,” King said. “For us in the non-profit sector, there’s real concern sometimes that non-profit workers are not paid a living wage.”
Find the full report at livingwagebc.ca.
