Working for a Living, Not Living to Work
This report provides living wage rates for all of Nova Scotia in 2021.
It uses community expenses to calculate the wage to reflect the rate of pay needed to meet everyone’s basic needs given the costs, available government supports and services, and norms of a specific region.
Living wage rates were calculated for the entire province by regions defined, according to Statistics Canada’s economic regions: Halifax ($22.05), Cape Breton ($18.45), Annapolis Valley ($21.30), Southern ($21.03), and Northern ($19.20).
For the two communities that can be compared to previous year’s calculations, the wage rates have increased, for Halifax by 1% and for Cape Breton by 4%.
The top three most expensive items in the budgets for all regions are shelter, food and child care, which combined make up just over 60% of regional budgets.
