Calgary’s $24.45 living wage highlights challenges for students earning minimum pay
By Nazeefa Ahmed, November 23 2024—
The city of Calgary’s living wage for 2024 is calculated to be $24.45 per hour, according to a recent report by Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC). The calculated living wage is 63 per cent higher than Alberta’s adult minimum wage.
The living wage represents the hourly wage a person needs to earn to adequately cover the cost of living. This is different from the minimum wage, which is the provincially legislated minimum amount that employers must pay. In Alberta, the general minimum wage has been $15 per hour since Oct. 1, 2018 and has not been updated since.
The 2023 Alberta Minimum wage profile finds 126,000 Albertans earning the minimum wage — 34.1 per cent of this group being students.
VCC used both recent and local data in their calculation, such as estimating the cost of fuel using the Canadian Automobile Association’s Gas Price tool and calculating tuition using the University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, and Athabasca University’s 2024 rates.
“For our food data, for instance, we worked with Alberta Health Services, where dietitians went into Calgary grocery stores to determine the actual cost of food,” said Tessa Penich, VCC’s leader of organizational effectiveness and author of the living wage report, in an interview with the Gauntlet. She added that the organization aims to include as much local data as possible to ensure accuracy.
The calculation also considered tax rebates and child tax benefits, finding certain categories of spending decreasing for Calgarians. Families, for example, are saving about $2,000 a year on childcare compared to last year, and are paying about $1,500 on electricity compared to $3,000 last year.
“There are particular programs that often benefit folks who have children, which is fantastic, but we need to make sure that we’re not leaving single people behind,” said Penich.
Housing and food costs are major contributors to the increase in the living wage. Households are paying about 10 per cent more for food than they were last year and housing in Calgary has increased by $2,000 per month, according to the report.
“So even though electricity costs have gone down, the cost of rent has gone up so much that it’s not only canceled out that savings, but it’s still increased beyond that,” Penich continued.
Grocery rebates and affordability payments were some government interventions from 2023 that the VCC considered in their 2023 living wage calculation.
“This year, the fact that some of those programs have ended or they’ve changed is reflected in the calculation,” said Penich.
Response from the Students’ Union (SU)
While the SU does not currently have a stance on VCC’s living wage calculation, SU Vice President External Mateusz Salmassi points to various government programs that used to support students being canceled, from the elimination of provincial education and tuition tax credits in 2019 to canceling the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP). STEP used to subsidize employers who hired students over the summer and created around 3000 summer jobs.
“If we’re going to eliminate tuition tax credits and say that students need to work, then there should be available job opportunities in which students can earn enough to get by,” said Salmassi.
During the provincial election campaigning period in 2023, Premier Danielle Smith had promised a non-refundable tax credit of $3000 to $10,000 for graduate students who stay in Alberta; however, the plan will now only apply to skilled tradespeople, offering a one-time $5,000 refundable tax credit to tradespeople moving to and filing taxes in the province in 2024, calling to question how many University of Calgary graduates are considered within this category.
The unemployment rate for those 15-24 in Alberta was 15.5 per cent in October 2024, which Salmassi points to in addition to the living wage as being a concern for the provincial government.
“What we need are jobs programs for students that help them gain the skills they need to be able to earn much higher wages later on,” said Salmassi. “Nobody should be part of the working poor and post-secondary students should not be part of the working poor either.”
VCC’s full report can be found here.