We live in a harsh world.
Our lowest paid workers struggle to survive because B.C.’s minimum wage is so low that they cannot afford the very basics of life.
At $10.25 an hour, even if workers are lucky enough to have 35 hours a week between two part-time jobs (a typical situation if they work in retail), their gross income is only $358.75 per week. That’s about $1,500 in an average month, before deductions.
The B.C. Federation of Labour reports that 63 per cent of minimum-wage earners are women; that figure rises to 70 per cent of workers between ages 25 and 54. Many of the women are single mothers who are struggling to buy nutritious food and provide basic shelter for their children.
In Squamish, typical rent on a two-bedroom apartment is now $1,200 a month including utilities, leaving almost nothing each month for groceries, clothing, shoes, transportation, a phone, basic medical supplies or sports activities for their children.
And certainly no money for saving for post-secondary education, which guarantees that their children will be stuck in the same rut when they grow up, unable to earn a living wage due to low education levels.
B.C.’s minimum wage is the fourth lowest when compared with other provinces in Canada despite our province having the highest real estate prices; the cost of housing here is roughly double the cost in a similar sized community in Ontario, for example.
Single moms on minimum wage there are earning only $11 an hour, but it goes much further if they live in a community the size of Squamish where they can rent an apartment for $600.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman held a breakfast last week to discuss the need for affordable housing in Squamish, and many ideas were bandied about, including the creation of smaller homes. But for a single mom with a few children struggling on minimum wage in Squamish, housing will only become affordable if we can pay them a living wage. While raising the minimum wage to $15 – as the labour groups suggest – may be too big a leap for small business owners, raising it a few dollars an hour will make a difference for many struggling single mothers here – and especially for their children.
We all have a responsibility to help our community’s children.
– Editor Christine Endicott
