Calgary’s living wage, the amount needed to maintain a modest standard of living, has risen by $0.75 per hour to $24.45—largely as a result of the continued increases in costs of shelter.

The annual estimation of the required per hour wage has been calculated by Vibrant Communities Calgary for more than a decade, and according to the organization it has seen some drastic changes during that period.

“It really, to people, is what you would need to earn, but you’re not making a trade-off between your basic needs on a day-to-day basis,” said Meaghon Reid, Executive Director for Vibrant Communities Calgary.

“I think one of the interesting reflections about the living wage over the years is just how affected people are if they’re single or lone parents. In our current economy, it’s almost like you’re doubly disadvantaged if you don’t have another earning adult in the household to be able to make ends meet, and that’s something that has changed quite drastically.”

Each year the living wage is calculated as a weighted average of living wage values for single individuals, two-parent families, and single parents with one child.

In 2024, the living wage for two-parent households dropped from $22.17 in 2023 to $22.03, while single individuals rose from $24.15 to $26.08, and for single-parent households from $31.07 to $32.96 per hour.

“When we talk about singles, singles are often left out of poverty policy conversations. We know that they are not the beneficiaries of a lot of government subsidies around things like childcare, family tax benefits, all of those things that are helping to offset the cost of living for people with children—even though children, of course, are expensive,” said Reid.

“For people who are lone parents with children, not having that second way in the house to offset things like increasing rent prices or increasing food prices, really makes it quite difficult for them to come close to the average weighted family of four average for a living wage.”

She said that a reason for the increase in the living wage value was changes to programs that topped up supports through direct payments to families have ended and from rising shelter costs.

To the benefit of families, said Reid, some changes by governments have led to improvements on other aspects of that calculation.

“Electricity has gone down about $1,500 from what people were paying last year, and child care costs have gone down as well from what people were paying last year. That’s a result of good government policy,” Reid said.

“The challenge we have in Calgary that other municipalities in the province are not seeing is that any gains we would have made by that good government policy… Calgary can’t realize those same games because of how expensive it is for someone to live here.”

Alberta's minimum wage far below Calgary's living wage requirements

Alberta's minimum wage of $15 per hour for adults was just 61 per cent of the $24.45 average minimum wage. For youth under 18, that minimum wage of $13 was just 53 per cent of the living wage.

"I hope everyone realizes how stark things are right now we've got a minimum wage that's far, far below what we are hearing the living wage should be," said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

"I do hope the people that need to make serious policy decisions are looking at this information, and looking at the evidence that we've got to help people be able to stay in their homes, to have food on their table. Affordability is a massive issue right now, and the numbers are telling us that we need to do something about people's wages."

She said that doubly went for single-parent households, given the difference of $8.51 per hour between the average and what single parents need to provide for their families.

"We've got to support single parents, and we've got to realize that if we don't do something right now and start making that incremental change happen, it's only going to compound and get worse."

Reid said that one of the reasons why Vibrant Communities Calgary puts out the living wage report each year, was so that people have an understanding of what it costs to live in Calgary.

"We hope this drives the conversation on things like minimum wages, and that's a conversation with the province and how we might need to step that up to get closer to that living wage number for Calgarians and all Albertans," she said.

"The other really important part of this is to encourage employers to become living wage employers. We have over 50 workplaces that we're aware of who are living wage employers. That means they're certified, and they're committed to paying a living wage. We know that many more who aren't certified also pay a living wage. It's doable."

In Alberta, there are an estimated 200,000 people working and receiving minimum wage. Reid said estimating the number of people who are in that gap between minimum wage and a living wage is harder to calculate.

"We don't know. We wish we did. Data is not made available, and it would be good to know who is at that living wage," she said.

For more details on the living wage calculations, see enoughforall.ca/projects/calgarys-living-wage-2024.