Minimum wage not enough to live off in Windsor-Essex, health unit says

Windsor-Essex living wage pegged at $18.15/h According to health unit, local residents need to be making at least $18.15/h to afford the necessities. Travis Fortnum reports.

According to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, residents of the region need to make $2.65 an hour over Ontario’s minimum wage to be able to afford the necessities.

Each year, the health authority calculates the living wage for the area in partnership with the Ontario Living Wage Network.

For 2022, it pegs a required wage of $18.15 an hour to be able to afford things like food, shelter and transportation – a 9.3 per cent jump from the year prior.

Craig Pickthorne, communications coordinator with the Ontario Living Wage Network says sizable jumps are happening in the living wages calculated province wide.

He says some jurisdictions have seen hikes near 20 per cent.

“I don’t think anybody can be surprised by that given the stories of inflation and cost of living all rising,” Pickthorne says.

In Ontario, the minimum wage just rose to $15.50 an hour on Oct. 1, after rising to $15/h from $14/h at the start of the year.

Pickthorne isn’t surprised there’s such a gap between living and actual wages.

“I’ve been doing this since 2017 and they’ve been calculating those wages longer than that. They’ve never been equivalent to minimum wage,” he says.

WECHU says it’s involved in the annual calculation because a person’s income directly impacts their health.

This year’s data was presented to the unit’s board on Thursday.

“Our role in this is to raise awareness about the realities about living wage and the difference between the living wage and minimum wage,” said Health Promotion Specialist Gordon Thane.

Locally, some 35 employers have committed to paying only the suggested living wage and up.

Such employers in the region, and across the province, can be found at the Ontario Living Wage Network website.