Article

Life on minimum wage in Calgary was always stressful, but it's even harder now

VCC's executive director says many of the lowest wage employees are forced to work multiple jobs

26 December 2022

Some Calgary residents living on minimum wage are finding it difficult to make ends meet according to this CBC Calgary article. Meaghon Reid says many people living on low wages are forced to work several jobs.

"I would encourage people when they're going to the supermarket or the drive-through or other places, where they would anticipate minimum wage workers, to actually take notice. Oftentimes, you're going to see an adult working in that job," said Meaghon. The article noted that the province's minimum wage profile, which was last updated for the period of October 2019 to September 2020, indicated that 73% of minimum wage earners in Alberta were not teenagers, and 41% had children.

Read the full article: Life on minimum wage in Calgary was always stressful, but it's even harder now

Alberta is the only province that didn't raise its minimum wage in 2022

About 200,000 Albertans earn a minimum wage in our province and in Calgary, the living wage is almost 50% higher than the minimum wage. It currently sits at $15 per hour for most employees and $13 per hour for people under the age of 18 and hasn’t gone up since 2018.

Attribution