Ontario's new minimum wage still not 'livable,' advocates say

Ann Mombourquette now makes 65 cents more an hour than she did last month, but according to a group that calculates what it costs to make ends meet in Ontario, she needs to be making much more to get by.

On Oct. 1, the general minimum wage across the province increased from $16.55 per hour to $17.20. 

That's still $7.85 short of what the Ontario Living Wage Network says is "livable." The not-for-profit calculates what a livable wage should be based on things like the cost of shelter, food or transportation in an area. It says the living wage for the Greater Toronto Area in 2023 was at least $25.05 per hour.

Mombourquette, a retail worker making minimum wage in Toronto, says between the high cost of rent and food, it's been tougher than ever for her family to pay their bills. It's also why one of her adult children, 30, recently moved back home.

"I was an empty nester and now they're all back home," she said. "Between utilities, gas hydro, phone…it's very hard."

Mombourquette and her adult children are some of the nearly one million workers the province says currently earn minimum wage who now benefit from annual increases tied to inflation. But according to the Ontario Living Wage Network, the current provincewide minimum wage is still lower than the livable wage in every region in the province. The organization calculated the lowest livable wage, in Southwestern Ontario, to be $18.65 and the highest as $25.05 in the Greater Toronto Area.

"There's just no place in Ontario where you could work a minimum wage job full time and be able to pay all your bills," said Craig Pickthorne, director of the Ontario Living Wage Network. In the GTA, he says, workers are short hundreds of dollars every month.

Pickthorne says the government has chosen a minimum wage that feels arbitrary relative to people's costs.

"$17.20 is not enough," said Mombourquette, adding she's now exploring how to access her local food bank for the first time to reduce the household's costs.

Opposition parties say minimum wage not enough

Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government raised Ontario's general minimum wage to $14 per hour on Jan. 1, 2018, a substantial increase from the $11.60 rate of 2017 and from modest hikes of between 15 and 25 cents an hour since 2015. The Wynne Liberals said they planned to raise it to $15 in 2019, followed by annual increases at the rate of inflation, but the Ford government, which took office in the summer of 2018, delayed further minimum wage hikes.

The Ford government waited until 2022 to raise the minimum wage to $15 and has now tied increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a move a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development says provides "stability for workers and predictability for businesses."

Critics say the delay means the base rate was too low even when the government began tying increases to inflation.

"The fact that it's going up is good," said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles. "But we need to adjust the base to reflect reality and then tie it to inflation. Right now, the base is far too low for where people are at right now."

She says the government also needs to better address major challenges like the lack of affordable housing.

Aislinn Clancy, deputy leader of the Ontario Green Party, represents the riding of Kitchener-Centre where the living wage is calculated to be $20.90 an hour. 

She says food banks in her area are telling her they are seeing usage double in a year and many people in the area increasingly can't afford rent or are being "renovicted" — forced out of rental properties when a landlord decides to renovate.

She says the wage increase should be higher and coupled with other moves.

"The government needs to do more to control rent prices and put some limit on these bad actors, and also to make sure that we have a living wage so folks can have a roof and food," said Clancy.

In a statement, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said, "In Doug Ford's Ontario, people are struggling, wages are down, costs are higher, and Ford is focused on helping his friends." 

She says the government should be focused on keeping the cost of living down.

Asked to respond to comments that the minimum wage is not a livable wage, a ministry spokesperson said, "We understand that costs vary across different regions, and we remain committed to supporting workers across the province."

The province says it's doing all it can to increase supply and has been meeting with worker groups and municipalities, working toward a goal of getting 1.5 million homes of various types built by 2031.

In 2023 and 2024, rent increases were set at a maximum of 2.5 per cent a month, but rent control only applies to units occupied by someone since before Nov. 15, 2018.

Precarious work making things worse: advocate

Ontario's minimum wage is one of the highest in the country. A statement from the ministry indicates this year's 3.9-per cent increase means that a worker making the general minimum wage over a 40-hour work week will make up to $1,355 more.

Neil Hetherington, CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto, the province's largest food bank, told CBC Toronto the rise in precarious employment must be addressed by the provincial government alongside raising minimum wage to make a bigger difference.

"The fastest growing group of individuals coming to the food bank are individuals who, on paper, have enough hours to get by, but don't have the income and benefits in order to make that happen," he said.

Pickthorne says his organization will release its next set of living wage rates in November, which are expected to widen the disparity between the living wage and the minimum wage further.

"If someone lives in Ontario and they work full time, they should be able to make ends meet," said Pickthorne. 

He says the government must continue to invest in programs like child care and affordable housing, as well as raise the minimum wage to ensure that's the case.