Whitehorse living wage rises to $32.43 an hour, report finds

WHITEHORSE — A single person in Whitehorse now needs to earn $32.43 an hour to afford the basics, up $1.21 from last year, according to a new report from the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition.

The report found a single-parent household with one child needs almost $4 more an hour than last year, bringing the figure to $37.80. Both amounts are well above the territory’s minimum wage of $18.51 an hour.

Kendall Hammond, the public policy researcher who wrote the report, said the living wage rises whenever the cost of necessities does. “When the cost of basic needs go up, then, obviously, the amount that you need goes up,” Hammond said.

Hammond said government policy can pull the figure down through investments in social and affordable housing, low-fee public transit and income supports such as the Canada Child Benefit and the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, which replaced the GST/HST credit in July 2026.

The report said the cost of a nutritious diet in every Yukon community was at least 10 per cent higher than in Whitehorse, citing 2017 data from the Yukon Bureau of Statistics. It also said most government transfers to individuals do not provide an enhanced benefit to people in remote communities with higher costs.

Whitehorse resident Laura Gohl told CBC News a bag of groceries that cost her about $40 two years ago now runs closer to $75. William Woodley, another resident, said he spends roughly $600 a month on groceries and that gas prices have become very expensive.

Gohl said her pay has risen as her career has advanced but her standard of living has not. “That tells me that the wages are not keeping up with the costs,” she said.

Cost pressures are also being felt well beyond the North. Our guide to rent increase limits for 2027 shows how housing costs are being capped, or not, across the provinces, and our explainer on landlord heat rules covers what tenants can expect as winter sets in.

The coalition’s findings were first reported by CBC North.

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