With food, transportation and housing costs rising, sticking to the family budget is become increasingly more difficult in B.C.
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, it takes two parents earning $19.62 an hour - each - to support a family of four.
The annual recalculation of the so-called "living wage" found the hourly rate necessary to cover rent, child care, food and transportation (after government taxes and levies) jumped 48 cents from $19.14 last year - that's the equivalent of 2.5%, or nearly double the rate of inflation.
We all know that housing costs are to blame for some of this burden but the CCPA study found that rising child care costs, food prices and a 4% jump in Medical Services Plan premiums were also to blame.
The problem is, many working parents don't even make that "living wage" and are getting by on the minimum wage of $10.25.
How are families coping? This is difficult to ascertain but the Tri-Cities Homelessness Task Force has found that there are increasing numbers of families in "core need," meaning that their housing costs are so high and their incomes so low that they are at constant risk of homelessness.
More people are also using the food bank, according to Share Family and Community Services, and School District 43 is seeing increasing numbers of vulnerable children, and is working with partners to provide breakfast and after-school programs plus other supports.
Other families, whose wages are more in keeping with the limit suggested by CCPA, are making some difficult choices to stretch their dollars. They have given up on the idea of a second car, for example, or the dream of an at-home parent and are turning to creative housing choices. For example, more families in the Tri-Cities are living in condominiums and basement suites than in previous years, and those who can afford to own a single-family home are renting out the basement.
Meanwhile, per capita debt, although stabilizing, is still high, suggesting that the Canadian dream, while not dead, is increasingly expensive to maintain.
