Ontario’s minimum wage hike may help students meet minimum obligations of their day-to-day lives, but it still falls short in covering rising living costs.
On Oct. 1, the Ontario government raised the minimum wage to $17.20 an hour from the previous $16.55 an hour. It’s standard for the Ontario government to increase its minimum wage every year, the provincial government reported in a news release. This year’s 3.9 per cent increase is based on the Ontario Consumer Price Index (I).
Minimum wage in Ontario is now the second highest in Canada after British Columbia’s wage of $17.40 an hour. Other provinces also increased their minimum wage on Oct. 1 to $15.00 in Saskatchewan, $15.80 in Manitoba, and $16.00 in Prince Edward Island.
“Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government is helping nearly one million workers earn more money for themselves and their families,” Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, David Piccini said in the release.
As of 2024, the living wage in Eastern Ontario regions, including Kingston, is $20.60 an hour, according to the Ontario Living Wage Network. The Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA) living wage is $25.05 per hour.
Living wage is an hourly wage required for a worker to cover the basic expenses, like food, housing, transport, and clothing, according to the World Economic Forum.
Heeya Patel, HealthSci ’26, works a minimum-wage job at a Kingston restaurant throughout the semester. Even with the recent rise in minimum wage, Patel worries about living costs.
“Although the recent increase in minimum wage is a positive step towards improving the financial stability of Canadians, university students are still victims of the steady rise in the cost of living. Rent, tuition, and other day-to-day living expenses aren’t getting any cheaper. The increase can only do so much,” Patel said in an interview with The Journal.
From 2023 to 2024, the average rent prices in Kingston increased 12 per cent, according to the National Rent Report by Rentals.ca. The greatest increase was 22 per cent in the average price of a three bedroom apartment. A three-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at Unity Point, an off-campus residential building, costs $1,375 per person monthly.
As of Oct. 1, a student working 20 hours a week at minimum wage would earn $1,376 a month before taxes—a mere dollar more than the cost of their rent.
“On average, you can expect to spend 10 to 15 hours per week on a 3.0-unit course in the Fall and Winter ,” according to the University.
Full-time students usually take at least five, three-unit courses per term. This comes to 50 to 75 hours a week of course load, meaning most students cannot afford to work 20 hours a week without sacrificing their academics.
“Honestly, most university students I know make minimum wage, and the competitive job market that pools together undergraduates and postgraduates isn’t helping,” Patel said. “While the increase is helpful, it’s a small part of a larger puzzle that needs to be solved.”
Many Queen’s students are employed by local businesses to make minimum wage. For example, most waged positions offered by the AMS offer minimum wage at the service staff level.
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