Our National Housing Day service speakers, Amanda and Marc, were in the Legislature Monday as it approved Bill 60, which Amanda, Marc and numerous others believe will lead to more tenant evictions. Premier Doug Ford turned to Marc and said, “Go find a job, buddy.” That’s disrespectful, especially at a time of high unemployment. And having a job hardly ensures you can pay today’s high rents.
You need an income of $72,000 or $36 an hour (full-time and full year) to afford the average rent for a vacant one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton (in October). How many jobs pay that much? Not many.
The federal Job Bank lists pay levels for all jobs, grouped into 515 occupational groups.
- In most of those job categories, the starting pay and even medium pay grades in Ontario, are too low for a full-time worker to afford the average Hamilton vacant one-bedroom unit.
- Even at the highest pay level for each classification, in almost a quarter of the jobs pay too little to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton.
Who are those workers who are paid at the high end of their work, but still not paid enough to afford the average vacant one-bedroom? Clerks, medical assistants, teaching assistants, child care providers, chefs, butchers, bakers, tailors, retail salespersons, customer service providers, airline ticket agents, security guards, cleaners, painters, floor covering installers, pest controllers, transport truck drivers, letter carriers, public works maintenance operators, foundry workers, machine operators and various factory workers.
(Note that the wage figures used by the government are typically for 2023-2024, so the wages might be a bit higher today but the basic pattern described here will still hold.)
To repeat, even many good jobs don’t pay enough to cover today’s high rents.
The problem is that rents have risen faster than incomes and are increasingly out of reach.
And Bill 60—passed without any opportunity for pubic input—will make that worse.