This Ontario city just became the largest in the province to officially pay employees a living wage

(Scott Miller / CTV London)

The City of St. Catharines is the largest and latest municipality in Ontario to be designated an official Living Wage Employer.

In doing so, the city has pledged to pay a living wage to all full-time employees. They’ve also said they'll extend that promise to part-time employees and craft procurement policy for third-party contractors by Dec. 2024.

Living wage is defined as the hourly rate needed to cover the actual costs of living in a community, unlike minimum wage, which is the lowest hourly rate an employer is legally permitted to pay a worker.

According to data from the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN) released in Nov. 2021, a living wage for the Niagara Region is estimated at $18.90 per hour.

Staff from OLWN and the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network joined the St. Catharines City Council meeting Monday night to make the announcement.

"We hope that this just continues the growth of the living wage work across the region and that we continue to see more and more employers signing on in the years to come," Lori Kleinsmith, from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network, said in the meeting.

"This marks our largest employer in terms of sheer number of people who work for the city of St. Catharines," she said.

Councillor Greg Miller announced the designation on social media Monday as well, thanking staff for “seeing the process through.”

“The City of St. Catharines is now a Certified Living Wage Employer,” Miller wrote.

‘We are now the largest certified Living Wage employer in Niagara and the largest certified municipality in Ontario.”

 

In Feb. 2021, St. Catharines council voted unanimously to apply to become a living wage employer through OLWN.

ONTARIO LIVING WAGE NETWORK

St. Catharines is one of 23 regions the Ontario Living Wage Network has calculated a living wage for.

The Ontario Living Wage Network devised the calculation methodology in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives B.C and Ontario offices, who were responsible for creating the standardized "National Living Wage Framework".

In Toronto, they’ve set the living wage at $22.08 per hour as of Nov. 2021 – the highest in Ontario.

The region with the lowest calculated living wage is Sault Saint Marie at $16.20 per hour.

To view all the living wages calculated by OLWN, see the interactive map below.