Here’s how much you need to make to reasonably afford an apartment in southwestern Ontario cities

A new report outlining the cost of renting in cities across Canada shows that nowhere in Ontario can someone making minimum wager reasonably afford a one-bedroom apartment.

A new report outlining the cost of renting in cities across Canada is painting a bleak outlook for those who want to spend less than 30 per cent of their gross income on housing.

Released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the report calculated a “rental wage,” which is the hourly wage required to rent an apartment and still fall within the affordable living calculated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as less than 30 per cent of before-tax household income.

“The rental wage is considerably higher than minimum wage in every single province. Even in the three provinces with the highest minimum wage in Canada—B.C., Ontario, and Alberta—there’s a shortfall in what minimum-wage workers earn and the rent they have to pay, on average,” the report reads.

The estimated rental wage would allow tenants to spend no more than 30 per cent of their pre-tax earnings on rent, and it assumes tenants work a standard 40-hour week for all 52 weeks of the year.

The report shows Ontario’s $15.50 minimum wage falls well below the actual wage of $27.54 needed to rent a one-bedroom apartment and the calculated $33.19 wage needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment.

Here are the actual wages needed to afford a one or two-bedroom affordable apartment in different cities:

To fall within the affordable living determined by CMCH, a worker would need to make $23.94 per hour, or $8.44 per hour above minimum wage, to afford the apartment.