GTA living wage rises 40 cents to $27.60 an hour

CP24 reported that the living wage in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the hourly pay full-time workers need to support themselves, is now at least $27.60, the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN) said. That is $9.65 above Ontario’s $17.95 minimum wage, which rose on October 1, and 40 cents above last year’s $27.20.

The network calculates the living wage for 10 Ontario regions and three household types, including two parents with two young children. The wage is the before-tax pay each adult needs to cover food, shelter, childcare, transport and recreation, after counting taxes, benefits and transfers.

Among those costs, housing for a family of four in a three-bedroom GTA apartment runs $34,802 a year, including hydro and tenant insurance. For that family, housing costs more than groceries and childcare combined, which come to $12,914 and $12,565 a year.

The shortfall is not limited to the GTA: the network says even in the region with the lowest living wage, a full-time minimum-wage worker would fall short of basic expenses.

Sources: CP24