Who actually makes $5,300 a month?

 Policy Reality: What a Lifetime of Work Actually Looks Like

I started working when I was young. Over the years, I watched wages slowly rise — but stability never kept pace with the cost of living, housing, or basic security.

In the early 1980s, I earned between $3.75 and $5.00 an hour. By 1982 I was at $4.00, and by 1986 I was around $4.75 to $5.00. Later I reached about $9.00 an hour, then $12, but that job ended after an injury.

After that, I went back to school and took on student debt. What was meant to be a short program turned into years due to cancellations and disruptions — meaning more debt, more delay, and more uncertainty.

In 1995, I worked as a photographer on cruise ships, already carrying debt, even covering basic job requirements like uniforms. That same year I earned between $12 and $16 an hour scanning aerial photography, before being affected by downsizing.

By 2001, I was self-employed while pregnant and financially unstable. Like many people in precarious work, there was no safety net that covered the gaps between jobs, health, and life changes.

Over the years, I continued moving through different forms of work:

• Around 2014, minimum wage was about $11/hour
• I asked for a $1 raise and instead received a disciplinary letter, and I had to leave that job — and I couldn’t access EI
• In 2018, I worked as a nanny starting at $20/hour, later $21 with occasional bonuses
• During COVID, I worked in housekeeping and cleaning at around $20–$25/hour, but nothing was steady
• I also experienced housing instability and being financially taken advantage of

More recently, work became even more unstable. One job ended and shifted into something completely different — effectively becoming nanny work for an elderly person and a dog for about $20 a day, compared to what was once $20 an hour.

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This is the Policy Gap

When governments and city councils discuss “affordable housing” or “market rents,” they often assume a stable, full-time income that many people simply do not have.

But the reality for many workers is:

• wages that rise slowly over decades
• jobs that are part-time, temporary, or unpredictable
• no benefits or paid sick time
• and constant gaps between employment

At the same time, rents in cities like Vancouver have reached levels such as:

• $2,400+ for a one-bedroom
• $3,300–$3,800+ for a two-bedroom

This creates a basic mismatch between policy assumptions and lived reality.

Because even when hourly wages look “higher” than decades ago, what has changed is not stability — it is insecurity. Many people are not working fewer hours because they choose to, but because full-time, stable work is harder to find.

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The Core Question

So when someone at City Hall asks:

“Who actually makes $5,300 a month?”

The deeper question is not just about income.

It is:

“What kind of economy are we designing — and who is it actually for?”

Because for a growing number of people, the issue is not willingness to work. It is whether work, in its current form, is still enough to guarantee housing, safety, and dignity.

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Reflective Questions

1. What happens to a system when full-time work no longer guarantees housing or stability?
2. If your sister went through a divorce today, could she afford to rent a one-bedroom on her own in this city?
3. What happens to a child when their parent is working multiple jobs but still cannot keep up with rent?
4. What happens to a nephew or niece when one parent is absent and the other is overwhelmed, exhausted, or unsupported?
5. What happens to families when grandparents can no longer age in place and must enter care homes because housing is unaffordable?
6. How does a society function when seniors cannot afford a basic one-bedroom after a lifetime of work?
7. What happens to LGBTQ2S youth when they are rejected by family and have no affordable housing safety net to fall back on?
8. What happens to mental health when employment is unstable, unpredictable, and without benefits?
9. What happens to community safety when people are forced into survival mode — juggling bartering, unstable work, and housing insecurity?
10. Who benefits when policy discussions are based on ideal incomes that many people have never actually experienced?

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