Renters would need to make $35.43 hourly wage to afford two-bedroom apartment in Vancouver: new report

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      A new Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report says Vancouverites need to make $35.43 per hour to afford an average two-bedroom apartment.

      That's the highest income needed to rent a home of that size anywhere in Canada. In Toronto, you'd need to make $33.70 an hour. In Saskatoon, you'd only have to make about $22.

      The cross-Canada report on 36 cities calculated the hourly wage needed to rent an average two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30 percent of one’s earnings. The CCPA chose that size of accommodation because it said it's the most common type.

      It found 31 of the 36 Canadian cities included in the report lacked a neighbourhood where minimum wage would cover a two-bedroom rent.

      In West Side neighbourhoods like the University Endowment Lands and Kerrisdale, you'd have to earn over $47 per hour. Just a bit to the east, in the Sunset neighbourhood of South Vancouver, that hourly wage would drop to around $29.

      As you move downtown, the wages hit more staggering levels, where North False Creek requires more than $60 per hour; South False Creek is over $50; and Downtown North is over $49. For comparison, toney West Vancouver/Dundarave sits at $48.76 per hour.

      In Vancouver, the CCPA found that if you made minimum wage (currently $13.85) you would have to work a gruelling 112 hours per week to afford that size of apartment. 

      PayScale.com puts the average local teacher's wage at $24.97; an electrician at $21.57; a nurse $33.78; $19.78 for a legal assistant; and $26 for a systems analyst.

       

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