[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto couples with kids must make $18.52 per hour each to get by, report finds"

[rfmcdonald]

Would that I made that wage. The Toronto Star's Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports.

Child care. Rent. Food. Transit. Across the board, Torontonians are being hammered by the rising cost of living. And the price of staying afloat? That’s soaring, too.

So much so, that a Toronto couple raising two children in the city must both work full-time earning $18.52 an hour each to make ends meet, says a new report on Toronto’s living wage.

The study, released Friday, updates a 2008 calculation that placed the city’s living wage at $16.60, the hourly sum needed to meet local living expenses.

“(A living wage) is what’s actually required to live a healthy, sustainable life,” said the report’s author, Kaylie Tiessen.

According to the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, sharp increases in the price of basic necessities in Toronto have made it harder for working adults to support their families.

The report seeks to provide a “modest standard” that reflects the reality of everyday living in the city. It argues Ontario’s current $11 minimum wage, set to increase to $11.25 in October, is still insufficient.

Drawing largely on Statistics Canada and municipal data, the non-profit organization’s research shows a family of four in Toronto needs an annual combined employment income of around $72,000 to afford the basics, such as rent, transportation, child care, food and clothing.