Medicine Hat was recently listed as the province's most affordable city due to a reported living wage of $18.15 per hour. But what the report didn't show is the city is also known for having more low-wage earners than other centres, and a significant portion of the community earns less than the living wage.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com
The Alberta Living Wage Network released its latest figures this week, and the numbers paint a picture of Medicine Hat as the least expensive of Alberta’s 21 most populous cities.
ALWN uses a variety of factors to calculate a minimum living wage, including the local cost of essentials like housing, food, transportation and childcare.
In Medicine Hat, data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,102 per month. The number in the report combines rent with utilities and tenant insurance to arrive at a holistic figure for shelter.
The report also creates different minimum living wages for different categories of households, including the single individual, the two-parent family with two children and a single parent with one child.
The overall average wage required to meet the modest requirements for subsistence across all household types is the $18.15 figure.
Although the number implies that Medicine Hat is a more affordable city than most, data also suggests a significant portion of Hatters live on less than the living wage.
According to Statistics Canada, as of 2021, there were 33,815 households in Medicine Hat. Among these, 4,085 earned less than $30,000, or less than minimum wage. That is equivalent to 12 per cent.
The provincial average for employees earning a wage at or below minimum was 6 per cent as of 2023.
Data from 2020 also suggests a median one-person household income of $39,600 in Medicine Hat, or approximately $19 per hour. That figure would place nearly half of Hatters as making at or below the current living wage, although more recent data is currently unavailable.
Minimum wage in Alberta has remained at $15 per hour since 2018. It is currently the lowest in the country, but the NDP opposition has sponsored a bill to raise it by a dollar a year to reach $18 by October 2027. MLAs will vote on the bill next week.
A September report released by MoneySense seemed to suggest a major discrepancy in estimates for the basis of a comfortable life in Medicine Hat.
The MoneySense data suggests a single person requires an income of $70,416 to live “comfortably” in Medicine Hat. While this was among the five easiest cities in which to hit the standard of comfort, it remains significantly higher than the income outlined by ALWN’s local living wage, which is equal to about $36,000 per year.
Lacanilao says he would have to look at MoneySense’s methodology, but suspects the discrepancy comes down to the treatment of housing. ALWN’s estimate presumes an individual is renting.
