New report shows one-third of N.B. workers earn less than $20 per hour

A new report compiling statistics around low-wage Atlantic Canadians reveals that one-third of New Brunswick workers earn $20 per hour or less. 

Ten per cent of those workers earn under $15 an hour.

The Nova Scotia office for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released the report this week, compiling data from the 2023 Statistics Canada labour force survey. 

The report shows that the one-third statistic rings true for the other Atlantic provinces as well, with Nova Scotia at 35 per cent, Prince Edward Island at 34 per cent and New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador at 33 per cent.

"Even if you were working at a full-time, $20-an-hour wage, you may be able to make choices that help you to be able to afford the essentials, but it would still be a struggle, definitely in some communities more than others," said report co-author and the Nova Scotia centre's director Christine Saulnier.

"But no matter where you're living across the region, people are facing difficulty in making ends meet," she said.

"It's quite a shocking number, if we think about one in three workers."

And Saulnier said that number likely would have been higher if the report examined how many workers were making below the living wage for their area.

The 2023 living wages are listed at $24.50 for Fredericton, $23.35 for Saint John, $22.75 for Moncton and $21.65 for Bathurst.

The New Brunswick minimum wage is $15.30, the lowest in the Atlantic provinces after Nova Scotia. 

"Putting side by side what current minimum wages are as of July 2024 and comparing them to what our 2023 living-wage rates show us — it's upwards of a $10 gap in our region and that's that's very concerning," said Saulnier.

She also said that the way living wage is calculated is a conservative estimate, since it doesn't include any possible debt payments.

The report also broke down what industries and demographics have the highest percentage of workers paid $20 or less. In New Brunswick, accommodation and food services and retail trade topped the list.

It also indicated that 86 per cent of those workers paid less than $20 per hour are not students. 

And 71 per cent of those workers have full-time jobs.

Daniel Légère, the president of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, said he wasn't surprised to see the report. He said it reinforced that New Brunswick and the Atlantic provinces have a "low-wage economy."

"And at the end of the day, workers are paying a significant price," he said.

"Work should lift people out of poverty and not keep them in it. 

"What do you do at the end of the week before payday and your car is empty and you've got to get to work? How do you pay for that gas? Well, you put it on credit cards. … Workers are using credit more than they'd probably like to just to pay the bills and get to work."

Légère said the federation and other groups are calling for a $20 per hour minimum wage.

Saulnier said $20 an hour would be a market reset of sorts. She said depending on the needs of different provinces, setting a minimum wage could vary across regions, but "a $20 reset would at least bring people closer to the living wage."