Calgary 
Alberta Living Wage Network has published the hourly wages residents of various Alberta cities need to earn to maintain a modest standard of living.
A living wage is not the same as the minimum wage, which is the legal minimum all employers must pay to their employees. Alberta’s minimum wage is $15 per hour.
The living wage is defined as “the hourly rate of pay needed for a household to maintain a modest standard of living, once government transfers have been added to the family’s income, and taxes have been subtracted.”
Alberta Living Wage Network says they have used the National Framework for a Living Wage which calculates a living wage that would allow two income earners with each working 35 hours per week to support a family of four (1 child in full-time daycare, 1 in before- and after-school care).
A living wage varies across communities as costs of living in a specific community including unexpected costs, small investments in education and childcare is taken into account while calculating the amount.
Alberta Living Wage Network
According to Alberta Living Wage Network, the 2021 living wages are as follows:
- Canmore: $37.40
- Fort McMurray: $27.35
- Cochrane: $22.60
- Drumheller: $19.70
- Lethbridge $19.00
- Chestermere: $18.60
- Calgary: $18.60
- Edmonton: $18.10
- Rocky Mountain House $18.05
- Red Deer $17.15
- Stony Plain: $17.20
- Strathcona County: $16.80
Vibrant Communities Calgary
Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC) says a family of four needs to make $81,293.20 per year to maintain a modest standard of living and they have published the detailed calculation of how they arrived at the amount of “$18.60” per hour as living wage here.
Detailed information on the methodology and calculation by Alberta Living Wage Network is given here — Alberta Living Wage Report.
Can I report this as wrong? How can they get away with this I’m going to be homeless with a 20$ hr job and a partner with the same wage
Yet again, Medicine Hat is not mentioned. Never mind that Chestermere is a suburb of Calgary and has the same Alberta Living Wage, never mind that Edmonton and Stony Plain are cheek by jowl, while Strathcona County is just the more rural area around Edmonton, all while Medicine Hat is out there virtually on its own, over 100 miles from the nearest large city and has its own unique economy. Yet you never mention it. For shame. This just reinforces to we who live here that indeed we are the forgotten corner of the forgotten province.