Whitehorse Daily Star

Image title

Photo by Whitehorse Star

Kristina Craig

Living wage in Whitehorse is set at $19.12

A worker with a partner and kids must make $19.12 an hour to maintain an adequate quality of life in Whitehorse,

By Sidney Cohen on June 29, 2016

A worker with a partner and kids must make $19.12 an hour to maintain an adequate quality of life in Whitehorse, according to a recently released report from the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YACP).

That’s $8.05 more per hour than minimum wage in the territory, which is $11.07 per hour.

According to Living Wage in Whitehorse, Yukon: 2016, the $19.12/hour figure represents the income a family needs to pay for decent shelter, food, clothing, health care, transportation and other basic necessities for life in the capital.

It enables a family to live at a level where its members can lead healthy lives, engage in their communities, and escape the persistent stress that comes with poverty.

“Families who work for low wages face many difficult financial choices – buy food or heat the house, pay the rent or feed the children .... The result can be spiraling debt, constant stress, and long-term health problems,” the report reads.

“The living wage is a call to find ways of reducing living costs and raising income in Whitehorse to eliminate the gap between wages and the cost of basic necessities.”

YACP calculated the Whitehorse living wage based on the methodology put forward by the Canadian Living Wage Framework.

The same methodology has been used to calculate living wages in Calgary, Halifax, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg and other Canadian cities.

To be sure, the living wage in Whitehorse will not be the same for all residents.

YACP’s calculation considers the incomes and expenses of a healthy family comprising two adults working full-time and two children ages four and seven.

It also assumes the children are involved in extracurricular activities, like swimming or music lessons, and that one adult is enrolled in night school to broaden his or her employment opportunities.

Whitehorse’s living wage accounts for tax benefits, such as the Yukon Child Benefit, and deductions, like income taxes.

It does not account for credit card and other debt and interest payments, savings for retirement or children’s education, the costs associated with owning pets and/or caring for ill or elderly family members, or alcohol and cigarette use.

All told, each working adult in the sample Whitehorse family must earn $19.12 an hour, or $34,798.40 a year, through work in order to meet YACP’s standard of living for the whole family.

What kinds of jobs in Whitehorse can provide sufficient support to a family of four?

“There is a big gap between public and private sector workers,” noted Kristina Craig, YACP’s co-ordinator.

“We know that there will be people in service industry, perhaps the retail industry, who might not be at this wage.”

Craig said the coalition hopes this report will spark a conversation about the cost of living in the city.

While Whitehorse’s living wage is high compared to other Canadian cities, it is not the highest.

According to the Canadian Living Wage Framework, Yellowknife takes the top spot.

In that city, the living wage for each working member of the sample family (two adults, two young children) is $20.68 an hour.

Vancouver is slightly more affordable: the living wage there is $20.64.

Medicine Hat, Alta. is the least expensive place to live in Canada. Its living wage is set at $13.

Of the all the cities measured, none had a minimum wage that matched its living wage.

In 2011, the report states, 6.4 per cent of Canadian households with working members did not make enough money to pay for the basics: food, clothing and shelter.

According to the Canadian anti-poverty education group Campaign 2000, 19 per cent of Canadian children were living in poverty in 2013.

“Shamefully, child poverty affects families who are indigenous, racialized, recent immigrants, affected by disability or led by a female lone parent in disproportionate numbers,” says Campaign 2000’s 2015 Report Card on Child & Family Poverty in Canada.

Craig suggested that what’s useful about the living wage measurement is that it looks beyond simply raising people out of poverty.

“It’s looking at health and wellness,” she said.

“We know that poverty lines don’t measure other kinds of poverty that people experience when they are low-income – their ability to engage in the community, their ability to support their kids in sports and recreational activities, their ability to do preventive health and dentistry – that really makes a difference in people’s lives.”

To make progress, Craig said, the gap between how much it costs to live in a place, and how much people earn there, needs to be closed.

“Any government has tools at their disposal, and they could include anything from subsidized public transit passes for low-income individuals, to subsidized post-secondary education ... to childcare subsidies. There’s lots of tools available to governments to reduce the living wage,” said Craig.

She called the Canada Child Benfit “positive,” adding it’s also positive that the Yukon government has decided not to claw back social assistance when the program begins on Friday (see yesterday’s Star).

The previous National Child Benefit Supplement (which is being replaced by the Canada Child Benefit) was counted toward a family’s income, affecting their income-based social assistance payments.

“It should’ve been a no-brainer a long time ago to not claw back benefits for low-income people,” said Craig.

Comments (22)

Up 3 Down 1

Retired and happy. on Jul 5, 2016 at 10:12 pm

Can pensioners join the poor and get a raise?

Up 3 Down 0

Politico on Jul 5, 2016 at 9:21 pm

@what am I missing on - You are totally missing it. Yes at one time minimum wage mostly applied to new workers but since the 80s that has been changing. Capitalists started shipping high paying skilled jobs overseas and then depressed the wages because it made good too expensive. If a better education meant a better wage why are tons of university and college grads working for minimum wage. Good paying skilled blue collar workers are a dying breed. You have people at the bottom of the wage scale and managers at the top, no middle ground. you think this is bad wait till the process of robotification takes hold and the jobs at the bottom start disappearing. What then? Already happening, robot financial advisers, robot drivers and robot McWorkers are starting to take over. All so business can make a bigger profit for the 1%. Sooner or later the people at the bottom are going to become dissatisfied with what's happening, then what?

Up 6 Down 3

John on Jul 5, 2016 at 2:17 pm

If wages are not high enough for workers to raise children then we won't have enough workers in the future to pay for the retirement of elderly people and we will NEED to bring in more immigrants.

Up 4 Down 5

what am I missing on Jul 5, 2016 at 12:59 pm

It is my understanding minimum wage is for entry level earners ie., students, part time earners while finding their way in life. If not happy with wage take advantage of one of MANY lists of student loans, grants, bursaries and go back to school and earn your worth based on your value.

Up 2 Down 10

Jonathan Colby on Jul 5, 2016 at 8:13 am

Kids do just happen. Since the beginning of time. How about instead of structuring an economy around profit and wage slavery, we structure it around human needs. Hm? Economics shouldn't have to weigh on the decision to rear a family, because 'fighting nature because money' is beyond foolish.

Up 5 Down 0

ProScience Greenie on Jul 5, 2016 at 7:53 am

We will never get 100% family planning BnR. Wish we could but we won't. Just the way it is.

Up 10 Down 3

Rosa Delanor on Jul 4, 2016 at 7:47 pm

I find it rather insulting that Canadians are being asked to limit the size of their families in order to have more financial money when we bring in refugee's and immigrants with 10 and 11 children and no visible means of support.

My daughter would have loved to have one more child but she couldn't afford it.

Up 6 Down 4

north_of_60 on Jul 4, 2016 at 4:31 pm

Follow the money. Greed is a powerful motivator.

Appraisers, bankers, realtors and government bureaucrats who own properties are all in collusion to keep increasing house prices way beyond their realistic value.

The unrealistic cost of keeping a roof over one's head is the single greatest cause of poverty in Whitehorse.

Up 8 Down 0

Just Sayin' on Jul 4, 2016 at 12:36 pm

Umm education will not guarantee you a good paying job. Numerous immigrants have proved that time and time again.Yet, they manage to live the lifestyle most people who are born here want to live... As said by others, spending money on important things, family planning and being a 'go getter' is how you get ahead in life.

Up 10 Down 3

BnR on Jul 4, 2016 at 6:11 am

"Sometimes kids just happen". ROTFLMAO!!! Nice one PSG. Kinda like magic eh? Please see my reference to family planning below.

Up 12 Down 1

Salar on Jul 3, 2016 at 2:57 pm

Yeah you can pay folks more but if the cost of living keeps rising (400k for old design houses in need of reno!?!) your never going to catch up.
It's insulting to listen to a realtor describe high pricing like it's just some reality......it's a joke! And worse yet is folks haven't just refused to pay....it wouldn't take long to get house prices to something reasonable if buyers quit for a while....think of how a huge mortgage takes away from quality of life.....sorry kids no slow Internet this year....gotta pay the mortgage.

Up 13 Down 7

ProScience Greenie on Jul 2, 2016 at 12:25 am

A lot of people simply can't go on to post-secondary education or get a trade or get on a career path. Sometimes kids just happen. That's life.

The Yukon has a long history of making sure everyone had a simple but warm and dry roof over their head, a full belly and a fair wage when they worked including the occasional cold beer after a hard days work.

Hope we haven't lost that history of compassion but it's not looking good.

Up 21 Down 11

Whitehorse isn't that bad on Jun 30, 2016 at 9:21 pm

Whitehorse isn't that bad, Smurf. I've grew up here and have lived here and worked here a long time. I've also worked back east (big city, with small wages and people who you really never get to know). This article is about raising wages for people so they comfortably--and let me tell you, when I lived in Quebec and worked for peanuts doing the same professional career, there was truly no way to get ahead. There are worst places to live....I wish you all the best wherever you're going but Whitehorse is not the dump you make it out to be.

Up 17 Down 9

BnR on Jun 30, 2016 at 6:45 pm

Maybe, just maybe, a couple could figure out if they were in the position, both education wise and career wise, before they started a family of any size.
Crazy idea eh?
Wasn't there a term we used once called "family planning"? But no, everyone has the right to everything and the government should take up the short fall.

Up 32 Down 9

Smurf on Jun 30, 2016 at 12:49 pm

It is not only what you have to earn to live up here, it is also what you get for the exorbitant amounts of money you have to spend:

- slow and overpriced internet
- extremely high rent for apartments and even retail/office spaces
- property taxes and fees/utilities going up every year (= means even higher rent)
- no competition in the retail and service sector (= pricey and/or bad customer service)
- bad infrastructure with crumbling roads and water/sewer system
- inefficient and poorly planned transit system (better than in the past before 2011, but still far away from attractive)
- city is not prepared for future expansion (one bridge to Riverdale, crosswalks on 2nd Avenue, connector roads for Whistle Bend, ...)
- the "castle on the hill" which nobody really needs and which is also way over a budget the city can ever handle
- crime rate goes up as fast as the property taxes

What makes the city really attractive???
The wilderness around, but that's what you get for free!!!
In the last 3 or 4 years this town became just a generic "something" with lots of costly projects in which a "normal" worker is not able to live anymore...

Sorry, but "goodbye Whitehorse"!
We're outta here in fall and I bet we're not the only family...

Up 27 Down 16

north_of_60 on Jun 30, 2016 at 12:24 pm

People are not poor because they don’t get enough money. Often it's because the money they get isn’t spent wisely. Like when booze, smokes, lotto, drugs, cell phone time, etc. are higher priorities than nutritious food.
Reducing their expenses is more effective than giving them more money to spend frivolously. [The same could be said for Mayor&Council.]
‘Bus passes’ should be free to low-income families. CGC passes should be free for them as well. That’s the very least the liberal elites who run this city should do.

Up 30 Down 2

Max Mack on Jun 30, 2016 at 11:51 am

One of the tools that Craig doesn't talk about is government's ability to actually lower the cost of living, rather than subsidizing costs. Truly affordable housing is not the same as subsidized housing. Affordable transportation is not the same as subsidized transportation.

On all fronts, all levels of government have been working to increase the cost of living. From ridiculous building standards to taxes on consumption to taxes on tipping/recycling to making transportation less efficient (i.e. more costly) to increasingly expensive energy to carbon taxes/cap-n-trade, we are being hammered daily with expenses imposed or encouraged by government.

Time for our governments to stop patting themselves on the back and start considering the real impact of their policies on the populace.

Up 20 Down 9

There is no such thing as a living wage on Jun 30, 2016 at 11:43 am

If you want a better wage let's help you to get educated for all the good paying jobs in the Yukon.

Up 21 Down 6

ProScience Greenie on Jun 29, 2016 at 9:22 pm

That wage sounds about right. No doubt though we won't see any rise in the minimum wage towards that figure as Karp and a good portion of the crew at the Chambers of Commerce will fight that and instead try to bring in more TFWs.

A fair wage leads to healthy people and families and most of that money gets spent locally. Reasonable home prices and rental rates are also badly needed.

Up 23 Down 6

Just Say'in on Jun 29, 2016 at 9:22 pm

You are absolutely right when you describe the family of four and a living wage but you can't confuse that with the minimum wage, which very few are actually paying. Entry level wages for kids that need tons of supervision and are a huge responsibility to their employer and should be much lower. Let me explain why. First they pay no taxes, it is clear money for them. 2 it is almost impossible to try and build a shift around all of their activities that interfere with their ability to work. 3 kids these days with a few exceptions have no work ethic and do not understand how to work. 4 an employer almost needs one on one supervision of young workers. For the reasons above they should be paid a lot less and chalk it up to work experience. Kids now, don't want a job they want a pay cheque.

Up 8 Down 5

The living wage in Canada per person is $9.46 cents in Canada depends on Jun 29, 2016 at 8:42 pm

on where you live in this country. The social assistance programs brings in below that level by a lot, which this report does not take into account the amount spent on social assistance, welfare and public housing and many other public programs like child support support.

Up 18 Down 4

June Jackson on Jun 29, 2016 at 5:16 pm

"Families who work for low wages face many difficult financial choices"

It actually doesn't pay to work in the Yukon right now. Yukon Housing takes 25% of your NET income. NOT your after taxes income, so they are charging you rent on money you never saw. You are better off to have no job. Unfortunately, welfare is the way to go, they will give you rent, food, medication, dental, eye exams and glasses/lens, transportation, furniture and clothing allowances, and day care. Plus they will give you entertainment money so that you or family can go to movies, restaurants, etc., and don't feel left out when friends do those things. AND although the legislation says you can't buy tobacco or alcohol products... of course they do. And there is no enforcement of any of the rules and regulations governing recipients of public funds.

If you choose to work and you fall into the low income workers group you do have to make hard choices.. Many seniors must also choose between rent? food? medicine? It is an urban myth that YTG pays for senior drugs. They pay for SOME drugs. Even the senior group ElderActive more than doubled their fee's. Hard to keep up with everything,

Young people just starting out, living 6 or more to an apartment, or, they can't afford to leave home.. too bad if they can't fall into a government job.

Living with just enough on what is offered in the Yukon at the moment is not an easy task for many groups living here. Paying them more money is not the answer.. make more money? CRA gets more money. It might be more helpful to raise the taxation benchmarks so folks can keep more of the money they earn.

If poverty level is $34,798.40 people should not have to pay taxes on earnings of $34K and under. Folks would have $4,500. more a year if the Federal government did not tax them so heavily. Instead of raising the minimum wage.. why not go after the federal government to up the benchmarks?

Salary 35 000,00 CAD
CPP- 1 559,22 CAD
EI- 658,00 CAD
Federal Tax- 3 046,44 CAD
Provincial Tax- 1 457,46 CAD
Total Tax- 6 721,12 CAD
Net Pay*28 278,88 CAD

Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar

In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.

Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.