Living wage in Perth-Huron jumps nearly 10 per cent to $22.75 an hour

The living wage in Perth and Huron counties has risen by roughly 10 per cent over the past year, growing from $20.70 an hour in 2022 to $22.75 an hour this year.

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Calculated annually by the United Way Perth-Huron’s social research and planning council, the living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs where they live. Based on a 35-hour work week, the living wage for Perth-Huron is calculated using local data on everyday expenses, including food, housing, utilities, clothing, childcare and transportation, while considering the weighted average of three family types: a family of four, a single mother supporting a seven-year-old government child and a single adult – after benefits and deductions are taken into account.

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“We had a substantive jump in the living wage the year before as well, so the last two years have jumped substantially around the same range. Actually. last year’s would have been more,” United Way Perth-Huron executive director Ryan Erb said. “It’s in keeping with what we’ve been seeing with inflation, but also significant pressures that are in our region.”

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As is the case elsewhere, increases in housing and food costs are the primary drivers for this year’s living-wage jump. In Perth and Huron counties specifically, Erb said local markets have seen greater increases in the cost of housing as people continue to move away from the Greater Toronto Area and into the region, particularly into attractive tourist areas like Stratford and along the Lake Huron coast.

Food is also more expensive in the rural areas of the Huron-Perth region than in more urban areas of the province, partly because there is a lot less competition between grocery stores in smaller towns like Mitchell and St. Marys, Erb said.

“Increasingly people are struggling to pay their bills,” he continued. “It’s no longer people who are not working who are struggling. These are people who are working a full-time job and coming at the end of the month saying, ‘I don’t have enough money to pay all the bills that are in front of me.’ That’s their rent, their food or their utilities. The only thing that’s flexible, really, is food, so what people end up doing is spending less money on food, and that’s of course a health concern. Employed people are increasingly starting to use food banks, and that puts more pressure on that system.

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“Overall, the income challenges people are facing are putting pressures on the entire system.”

While local businesses are also feeling the pressures of inflation and rising costs, Erb stressed the benefits of employees paying a living wage beyond the costs. In speaking with employers who have signed on with the Ontario Living Wage Network as a certified living wage employer, Erb said he’s heard many accounts of the positive impacts paying a living wage has, whether that’s reducing staff turnover and sick days, increasing productivity and loyalty , or even just boosting morality.

“When you look at the grand scheme of things, if individuals can’t pay their bills, they’re not going to remain employed,” Erb said. “It’s a vicious circle, unfortunately. …The United Way isn’t here to point a finger at businesses. The United Way is here to encourage businesses to consider the opportunities that exist with paying a living wage. …If you can reduce the number of sick days or reduce the number of turnovers that you have, all of those costs contribute to the overall expenses of an organization.

“When organizations pay living wages, they tell us those things are better and, in the end, for many of them, it actually improves their bottom line.”

For more information about Perth-Huron’s living wage and to find out how to become a certified living wage employer, visit perthhuron.unitedway.ca/research/living-wage.

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