Five Canadian provinces are raising their minimum wages again.
And I want us to talk about what happens after the wage goes up.
Because I remember.
I was a single mother, moving between Kitsilano and Nelson, B.C., trying to raise my child and keep a roof over our heads. I remember thinking: If only I could make $15 an hour, maybe I could finally afford the rent and still buy food.
Well, B.C. eventually went far beyond $15.
The minimum wage was $8 in 2001. It is now $18.25.
But look at housing.
In Vancouver, CMHC's average rent for occupied rental units went from $749 in 2000 to $1,006 in 2010, $1,394 in 2018 and $1,675 in 2022.
In Kitsilano, the average reported rent was already $1,470 in 2016 dollars — higher than Vancouver's $1,300 average.
And Nelson wasn't magically affordable either. Average rent there rose from $681 in 2006 to $904 in 2010 — a 33% increase in just four years.
Today, asking rents in Kitsilano are around $2,700 a month.
So please don't tell working people that raising the minimum wage alone solves affordability.
A higher wage is important. But if you cannot afford the rent, you are still not secure.
And I am warning governments now: don't measure success by the size of a paycheque. Measure whether a person can actually pay the rent, buy groceries and live with some dignity.
Mark Carney, B.C. government, municipalities — please look at the whole picture.
People don't live on wages alone. They live in homes.
And if the home is unaffordable, the math still doesn't work.
1. If wages rise but rents rise faster, how does that actually improve a worker's life?
2. Real estate agents: when housing prices and rents increase, who ultimately pays the price?
3. Property managers: how do you determine what rent is “affordable” for the people who actually live in your communities?
4. Landlords: when you increase rent, do you ever calculate what percentage of a tenant's income that increase represents?
5. Employers: if you know your workers cannot afford housing near their workplace, is the wage truly a living wage?
6. Mark Carney and policymakers: should economic success be measured by wages and GDP alone, or by whether ordinary people can afford housing and food?
7. Governments: what good is raising the minimum wage if a full-time worker still cannot afford a modest home?
8. Real estate investors and developers: where does housing affordability fit into the equation when property is also treated as an investment?
9. Everyone involved in the housing system: how many people must be pushed out of their communities before we admit that the math is broken?
10. And the hardest question: if someone works full-time and still cannot afford a safe place to live, what exactly are we asking that person to do?
#MinimumWage #AffordableHousing #Rent #CostOfLiving #Kitsilano #NelsonBC #BritishColumbia #HousingCrisis #WorkingPoor
