‘Workers need a raise’: Living wage soars to $25.68 in Metro Vancouver, report says

As inflation and rising costs, especially for housing and food, continue to rack up, Metro Vancouver’s living wage has climbed to $25.68 per hour for 2023.

Community members in Metro Vancouver are feeling the squeeze as they pay, every day, for their necessities.

As inflation and rising costs, especially for housing and food, continue to rack up, Metro Vancouver’s living wage has climbed to $25.68 per hour for 2023 — a six per cent rise from the previous year.

The living wage, calculated in a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office and Living Wage for Families BC, is the hourly rate that each of two parents working full-time must earn to support a family of four.

The report found that Metro Vancouver families have to spend on average $4,000 more this year for the “same basket of goods.”

“Although inflation has dropped from last year’s historic highs, the cost of living across B.C. continues to increase rapidly,” said Iglika Ivanova, CCPA-BC senior economist and the report’s lead author.

While parents with young children in licensed child care have largely benefitted from price reductions in 2023, the savings are being entirely consumed by soaring prices in other areas, the report said.

Housing costs have demanded an extra $411 per month, a spike of nearly 17 per cent from 2022.

Food is the second most expensive expense in the living wage family budget and has grown by more than $68 a month from last year — an increase of 6.1 per cent.