Life on minimum wage in Calgary was always stressful, but it's even harder now
With 'living wage' pegged at $22.40/h, is it even possible to live on the $15 minimum?
Calgary resident Caitlyn Lowe, 36, is juggling two jobs right now — one at a retail pharmacy chain, the other at a casino.
The majority of her hours come from the casino, where she earns minimum wage. All told, she works 42 hours a week, and she's finding it difficult to keep up with her bills.
"Between the pandemic and inflation, everything just basically chewed its way through my savings," Lowe said. "I have no savings left. I've actually dipped into my TFSA (tax-free savings account) to pay bills."
Alberta has held its minimum wage at $15 per hour since 2018. That puts it below provinces like Ontario and British Columbia, which hiked their rates this year to $15.50 and $15.65, respectively, but above provinces like Manitoba, which increased its rate to $13.50 in October.
Advocacy groups say there is a big difference between the minimum wage and a "living wage" — defined as the amount a person needs to meet their basic needs and to modestly participate in a community.
The Alberta Living Wage Network, a collection of municipalities and community organizations focused on pushing for a living wage in the province, recently released its numbers for 2022.
According to their calculations, the living wage in Calgary sits at $22.40 per hour.
Their calculations assume each adult works full-time hours. They take into account food, clothing and shelter, and also unexpected costs and small investments in education, child care and participating in the community
"What we're seeing is that life is becoming a bit more costly in a lot of areas for most people," said Ryan Lacanilao, a co-ordinator with the network.
Though the City of Calgary expects the situation will moderate going into next year, its fall economic outlook acknowledges that 2022 has been more difficult for consumers than for businesses and governments, with the costs of shelter and transportation pegged as two of the three most significant sources of inflation for the year.
In the outlook, the city said it expects the rate of increase in the cost of living will decline from a multi-decade high of 7.2 per cent in 2022 to 3.1 per cent in 2023.
Life on minimum wage
Still, for those who work for minimum wage, tracking market trends isn't often front-of-mind when compared with the immediate needs presented on any given day.
"Depending on how things keep going, I don't actually know what I'm going to do," Lowe said.
"Once it hits a certain level, do I say, that's it, I can't afford to live in Calgary anymore, and find somewhere else to live, leave behind my entire support system, uproot my life? Or do I say, well, now I need a third job?"
Arjun Unnithan works part-time earning minimum wage at a fast food restaurant in Calgary while he studies marketing at SAIT Polytechnic. He said he lives with his parents right now but feels as though things would be very difficult if he didn't.
"It would definitely be really hard," he said. "Prices are going up every day."
And though the perception might be that those who earn minimum wage are all like Unnithan — students who are just earning minimum wage for the time being — the most recent statistics from Alberta's ministry of labour and immigration don't support that.
The ministry's minimum wage profile, which was last updated for the period of October 2019 to September 2020, indicated that 73 per cent of minimum wage earners in Alberta were not teenagers, and 41 per cent had children. A new report is expected in spring 2023.
Meaghon Reid, executive director of anti-poverty group Vibrant Communities Calgary, said individuals connecting with the organization are expressing a lot of desperation these days — sometimes working two to four jobs and only getting five hours of sleep at night.
"I would encourage people when they're going to the supermarket or the drive-in or other places, where they would anticipate minimum wage workers, to actually take notice," Reid said. "Oftentimes, you're going to see an adult working in that job."
Alberta's minimum wage was the subject of a 2019 study by the UCP government after groups representing restaurants and small businesses criticized the wage increase at the time. That report was shelved, and its recommendations never released.
"The economy is dramatically different than when the panel did its work," said Vitor Marciano, a spokesperson for the province.
Policy perspectives
Economist Trevor Tombe said that though there's no credible evidence showing that Alberta's minimum wage increase resulted in any measurable drop in employment, the effects of minimum wage do change depending on how high the minimum is compared with most other wages in the economy.
He noted that a $15 per hour minimum wage in a province like Prince Edward Island, where earnings and wages are significantly lower than in Alberta, would have very different effects than it would in this province.
"That's why minimum wage policy, I think, needs to be flexible to differences across regions that can also include differences between urban and rural areas, for example. There's not just one hard and fast number that we should point to and peg and fix in all jurisdictions at all moments in time," he said.
Tombe said he wasn't sure considering a $22 per hour wage was the best way to alleviate concerns around poverty, when provincial and federal governments have the capacity to provide cash transfers to individuals through various programs.
He cited the federal Canada workers benefit and the provincial Alberta Child and Family Benefit as examples of types of programs that could be increased in scale or scope.
"[But] one area I think policymakers consistently miss: we provide a lot of supports to those with children but not lower income individuals without," Tombe said.
Whatever route policymakers take moving forward, Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Vancouver-based Centre for Future Work, said the recent upsurge in inflation has highlighted that the legal minimum wage is "quite inadequate."
"There's no way that a family could be working for the minimum wage and still meet the basic necessities of life for themselves and for any children that they might have," Stanford said.
"The legal minimum wage is inadequate if our goal is to ensure that everyone who's employed has at least a basic minimum standard of living."
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