The key theme in this year’s report is that far too many households in Atlantic Canada are struggling to make ends meet – their real earnings do not match the minimum living wage needed to pay basic expenses.

Williams continues, “Of course, employers need to take note of what is going on – their struggles to find workers are directly tied to the fact that people simply cannot afford to live on low wages. Employers need to recognize this reality, and governments need to act. The Living Wage Report offers a clear set of policy recommendations for governments that want to tackle the most important economic challenge in the region.”

MacNeil further states, “Recent labour disputes reflect this struggle: the Cape Breton Island Building Trades’ recent strike, faculty and precarious academic workers at Dalhousie, and flight attendants at Air Canada. Many of these situations are about workers trying to catch up from the early years of the COVID pandemic, when they made concessions and sacrifices at the bargaining table during tough times for their employers. Workers are having to go on picket lines to get what should already be theirs: decent wages that keep food on the table, rent paid, and the lights kept on.”