A report shows three British Columbia cities were among the top five least affordable for renters last year.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) report released its rental wage report for 2024, showing what hourly wage would be needed to afford rent in a range of Canadian cities.
Vancouver tops the list with a rental wage of $48.94 per hour – the wage residents would need to make in order to afford a two-bedroom rental. That surpassed Toronto at $44.80 per hour.
Victoria and Kelowna take third and fourth place, at $38.33 and $37.21, respectively.
Ottawa also makes the top five at $36.85 per hour.
The average wage a British Columbian would need to make to afford a two-bedroom in the province is $38.10 an hour.
The report is based on a standard 40-hour work week, while spending 30 per cent of income on housing.
The CCPA report focuses on the rental wages for one and two bedroom units, which make up most of Canada’s overall rental housing stock.
The report used data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CHMC‘s) rental market survey, which was last taken in October 2024.
“Similar to the idea of a living wage, which is a much more detailed calculation typically based on families of four, the rental wage is a simple and intuitive tool to see how inclusive local wages, and minimum wages, are in terms of providing the most costly basic necessity, the roof over one’s head,” say the report’s authors.
The report said even with Canada’s highest minimum wage, B.C. remained the most unaffordable province for someone earning minimum wage, requiring three weeks of full-time work just to make rent.
B.C.’s minimum wage is currently 17.85 an hour, though at the time of the data used in the report, it was $17.40 an hour.
The report said a Vancouver resident would need to work full time at 2.2 minimum wage jobs to afford a one-bedroom. In Victoria and Kelowna, 1.7 minimum wage jobs were needed.
Statistics Canada data show the median hourly wage for a full-time worker in British Columbia was $34.00 as of April 2024.
The province’s current average hourly wage is $37.58, a figure that includes the highest earners.
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