Rent unaffordable in Lethbridge for minimum wage workers

A new report has found that rent is unaffordable for minimum wage workers across Canada.

That’s according to The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and its new study called Rental wages in Canada 2022.

Here in Lethbridge, a one-bedroom rental wage was $19.62 per hour in 2022, or $21.75 for two bedrooms.

Trevor Lewington, the CEO of Economic Development Lethbridge says he’s not surprised by these numbers.

“It’s key to remember that affordability of housing and rentals in Lethbridge relative to the rest of the country is still very good. Right? So although this report says housing is unaffordable here relative to the minimum wage, the vast majority of people here don’t earn the minimum wage. So there’s no question it does negatively impact some folks, but it’s not the majority of people in the city. So I think that’s the good news. The other thing, here in southern Alberta, we also have just over 6,000 job vacancies. And when I look across those job vacancies, the average hourly wage there is north of $22 an hour.”

The report also says that in 34 out of 37 census metropolitan areas across Canada, the minimum wage is lower than the rental wage for a one-bedroom unit.

To read the full report you can visit https://monitormag.ca/reports/cant-afford-the-rent/#chapter3