Minimum wage workers in Edmonton need 108 hours just to cover rent

Minimum wage workers in Edmonton are spending more than 62 percent of their monthly working hours just to cover rent, according to a new analysis by Zoocasa.

Using Alberta's $15 hourly minimum wage and rental data from Rentals.ca, Zoocasa calculated that a full-time minimum wage earner would need to work about 108 hours each month to cover the average one-bedroom rent of $1,610. The analysis used standard full-time hours of 160 to 173 hours per month, based on workweeks of 37.5 to 40 hours.

That leaves the remaining income to cover groceries, utilities, transportation, and every other cost of living — with nothing left over. For context, only eight of the 60 Canadian cities studied could cover rent on fewer than 100 hours of minimum wage work. In 29 cities, workers needed at least 120 hours.

Alberta's affordability crunch is most severe in Airdrie, north of Calgary, where a minimum wage earner would need 136 hours to cover average rent of $2,027. That's more than Calgary, where 126 hours are needed for $1,886 average rent. Medicine Hat and Lloydminster fared better — 92 and 88 hours respectively.

At $15 per hour, Alberta now has the lowest minimum wage among the provinces studied. Workers in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and every other province earn more per hour.

Nationally, North Vancouver required the most work. Despite B.C.'s higher minimum wage, a worker there would need 164 hours — about 95 percent of a standard working month — to cover average rent of $2,983. Workers had the easiest time in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, where at $16 per hour they still needed 74 hours to cover $1,172 average rent.