The greater Toronto area and its municipalities, including those in Halton, have been evaluated in the Ontario Living Wage network's (OLWN) annual report with results for the region's new minimum living wage.
As the cost of living continues to skyrocket in Oakville, the report calculates what it costs to realistically and sustainably live in various municipalities and regions across Ontario.
What does this year's report say? The local results for Halton are staggering: the new living wage for workers in all of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), including Halton, was calculated this year at a new rate of a minimum $26.00 per hour.
This year's rate is up 3.8 per cent from the 2023 minimum rate of $25.05 per hour - higher than Canada's annual inflation rate of 3.4 per cent.
Craig Pickthorne, director of communications for the OLWN, explains that "this year saw increases in all ten regions of Ontario" where the organization calculates living wages, "with the GTA as the highest at $26.00."
Pickthorne also noted that "there is still no place in Ontario where you could work full-time and cover all your expenses."
This new hourly living wage was first reported by OLWN yesterday, Nov. 18, 2024, and is reported annually during Ontario's annual living wage week. Reports are issued each year in November.
Ontario's minimum wage was last increased back on Oct. 1, 2024 by $0.65 hourly to a minimum of $17.20 per hour.
How bad does that make the pay disparity? It means anyone working a minimum wage position in Halton region is making $8.80 less per hour (or about 35% less) than needed in order to pay the median bills based on local cost of living.
Read more here: How can local businesses afford to pay a living wage?
It also means the living wage in Oakville is now more than 50% higher than Ontario's minimum wage - a significant difference.
These new figures means the gap between minimum and living wages is growing: in 2021, the difference was $5.75. Now the separation between the two is another $3.05, even with the newly raised minimum wages.
Worst of all, even the rate of $26.00 doesn't account for a true living wage: while things like rent, food, transportation, clothing, medical and recreation are factored in, several expenses are not included, such as retirement or emergency savings, housing or condo fees, debt repayments, children's savings funds, or emergency expenses.
Breaking down the numbers
These calculations, however, come with a few stipulations and assumptions, making the true, local cost of living and living wage requirements even higher than that.
First, Oakville has been calculated in other reports to be the second most expensive municipality to live in Ontario, and the fourth highest in all of Canada. For example, as Oakville News reported, local rent prices have increased nearly 18% in the last year.
That means the $26.00/hour average in the GTA is being brought down by less costly towns and cities than Oakville, including Milton, Mississauga and Oshawa.
While the living wage includes things like food,
But there are some other conditions to the rate:
- The rate of $26.00 assumes that a person is working a full-time job at 40 (or more) hours per week.
- The minimum rate assumes a minimum double income household, both earning the living wage rate of $26.00 per hour or more.
- These rates must also be paired with at least some additional benefits, including medical coverage and vacation pay.
- The rate factors in $26.00 is the gross pay or pre-tax pay.
- For families with children or dependants, this amount also factors in a median amount for eligible government benefits.
What does of all of the above mean? At these newly published rates, it means once all expenses and taxes are factored in, these are the minimum pre-tax incomes needed in order for workers in Oakville to meet the cost of living:
- A single person needs to be making at least $85,900 per year
- A two person household (either two adults or a single parent and child) needs a household income of at least $140,160 per year
- A family of four (assuming two adults and two children) needs a household income of at least $171,800 per year
Editor's note: the increases to living wages are higher in 2024 as 2023 calculations did not include omissions from living wages as listed earlier in the story, like retirement, education and emergency savings.
The impact of living wages in Oakville
Oakville News first began reporting on living wages three years ago, coinciding with Living Wage Week 2021.
In that investigation, Oakville News conducted several interviews with local experts on what the impacts of living wages in town could tangibly be: both the positives of having a living wage and the negatives of not.
"A living wage is really about allowing people to thrive and participate in their community," says Ted Hildebrandt, director of social planning at Community Development Halton.
Vivien Underdown, senior manager with the United Way of Halton and Hamilton, also gave an interview with Oakville News in fall 2021 when Oakville News first looked at the struggles of local living wages.
Underdown says that when people earn less than a living wage, they may struggle to afford transportation, internet services and childcare. That increases social isolation, damages their physical and mental health and makes it harder to find work and stay engaged in their communities.
According to the OWLN, as of Nov. 6, 2023 there are 868 certified living wage workplaces across 635 employers in the province. Of those, only seven of them are located in Oakville.
"Starting with that living wage is an absolute must," said Underdown. "But we also need to collectively work together to ensure the network of supports support everyone who is living in poverty in order to collectively bring the community up."
You can read more information about living wages both locally and across the province on the Ontario Living Wage Network website here.
Files from Oakville News reporter Kim Arnott contributed additional material to this story.