Living Wage 2010

This morning CCPA-BC released a new study with First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, and the Metro Vancouver Living Wage for Families Campaign. Working for a Living Wage 2010: Making Paid Work Meet Basic Family Needs in Metro Vancouver updates the first Metro Vancouver calculation published in 2008.

The living wage calculation includes basic expenses for a two-earner family with two young children, as well as government taxes, credits, deductions and subsidies. It finds that each parent would need to work full-time at an hourly wage of $18.17 in Metro Vancouver in order to pay for necessities, support the healthy development of their children and participate in the social and civil life of their communities.

The announcement follows last week’s news that New Westminster’s city council voted unanimously to adopt a living family wage for city and contract employees, making it the first municipality in Canada to do so.

I’ll be on BC Almanac at 12:30 PM today, and CTV, Global and CBC TV will be covering the story on the evening news. Exciting times!

Topics: Employment & labour