As Canadians grapple with affordability and the rising cost of living, the gap between minimum wages and living wages continues to grow in provinces across the country.
Now, a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) has revealed the livable wage across the east coast province has increased by between five and eight per cent.
In Halifax, the 2022 livable wage is $23.50 — up $1.45 per hour compared to 2021 data. The most significant increase affects those in the Cape Breton region, where the livable wage has gone up $1.55 per hour since last year. Considering Nova Scotia’s minimum wage is $13.35 per hour, an employee in Halifax working 40 hours a week at minimum wage earns $406 per week less than they would earning a living wage. That’s more than $21,000 every year.
The 36-page report, aptly titled Working for a Living, Not Living To Work, also examined the differences between the increases in wages and inflation, which represents “an actual cut to wages of nearly five per cent on average.”
That’s significant, the CCPA-NS says, because workers in Nova Scotia make the second-lowest average earnings in Canada after Prince Edward Island.
The report also found that employees in the hospitality and food service industries represent the lowest average weekly earnings in the province.
“We have not seen this level of increase since we started calculating the living wage in 2016,” the report reads. “The living wages have increased because there were no permanent, substantive increases to government income benefits to offset the rising costs.”
The author of the report, Dr. Christine Saulnier, is the Nova Scotia director of the CCPA. She has penned living wage reports for Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Newfoundland and Labrador.
According to Saulnier, a living wage represents “the hourly rate at which a household can meet its basic needs” like food, shelter, and heat.” A living wage also takes into account government transfers that increase family income, like the Canada Child Benefit or GST credit, as well as any deductions including income tax and Employment Insurance premiums.
Workers took a five per cent average wage cut: CCPA
The report’s underlying message is simple: Life should not be a constant struggle.
Pointing out that inflation in Nova Scotia reached a 40-year high this year at 9.8 per cent, consumer prices also spiked by 9.3 per cent.
More concerning is the increases in the cost of rent, fuel, and food. Renters in Nova Scotia saw costs increase by 8.2 per cent, while those who drive paid roughly 60 per cent more for gasoline in June compared to last year’s stats.
“Dealing with cost increases is possible if your income is keeping up,” the report reads. “That is not the case for the average worker in Nova Scotia.”
Average weekly earnings increased by just 4.1 per cent between January and June when compared to increases during the same period in 2021.
What that means is workers are actually making less than they were last year, with the average wage cut at nearly five per cent.
Living wage hitting record highs in Manitoba, Saskatechewan
The report comes after NDP MP Leah Gazan, who represents the constituency of Winnipeg Centre, introduced a private member’s bill in Dec. 2021 to create a national framework for a permanent Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI) in Canada.
Meanwhile, the current living wage is continuing to hit record highs in cities across Canada, with Winnipeg’s livable wage sitting at $18.34 per hour. In Regina, it’s $16.23 per hour.
According to Living Wage Canada, the top three certified living wage municipalities are Vancouver, B.C., St. Catharines, O.N., and Victoria, B.C.
Justice for Workers N.S. calls for $20 minimum wage
Suzanne MacNeil, an organizer with Justice for Workers Nova Scotia, says the minimum wage in the province is simply not keeping up with inflation and the rising cost of living.
“Over the last year especially, folks have been increasingly feeling the pressure on their pocketbooks,” MacNeil said. “Their wages are not stretching as far as they used to and a lot of people are really worried about how they’re going to balance the various costs of living — being able to pay the rent [or] being able to put food on the table.”
Formerly known as the Fight for $15 and Fairness, Justice for Workers went through a rebranding process earlier this year, updating their demands to reflect the rise in the cost of living.
Dedicated to advocating for workers’ rights, the organization is calling on the Nova Scotia provincial government to implement a $20 minimum wage for all workers. They’re also fighting for stronger labour standards, better working conditions, justice for migrant workers, a simplified process to join a union, and 10 permanent paid sick days each year.
MacNeil pointed out that when the government first implemented a federal child tax credit, the living wage actually went down. Now, she says, it’s time for similar measures to address food security and affordable housing to help bridge the gap in wages in the Atlantic region.
“We’ve been fighting this fight for a higher minimum wage for several years… and I think we can say now, that there is pretty much no evidence that raising workers’ wages wrecks the economy,” MacNeil said. “Workers having more money in their pockets gets us out of crisis, not into crisis.”
The minimum wage in Nova Scotia is set to increase by $0.25 to $13.60 per hour on October 1 — a raise of less than two per cent for the lowest paid workers in the province.
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