According to the Youthful Cities Real
Affordability Index young people in Canada run an average deficit of $750 a month living in cities and the ripple
effects should raise concerns
TORONTO, May 12, 2022
/CNW/ - Today, Youthful Cities released the results of its Youthful
Cities Real Affordability Index providing insights into how cities
across Canada stack up for young
people in terms of affordability. Simply put, Canadian cities
aren't affordable for young people.
Presented by RBC Future Launch, the Real Affordability Index
explores the affordability of 27 Canadian cities. According to the
findings, as the group hardest hit by the pandemic and also the
group most likely to work in the service industry, young people in
Canada 15 to 29 years of age can
no longer afford any of the cities they live in – big or small.
Young people in Canada run an
average deficit of $750 a month
living in cities.
Regionally, Canadian cities in the East are the least affordable
overall, primarily due to the east coast salary discount, while
cities in Alberta and Quebec offer more opportunities for young
people to save money.
Lethbridge is the most
affordable city with a monthly deficit of $32.92 but it also has one of the largest gender
gaps related to affordability at 20 per cent. Helping contribute to
its higher affordability ranking, renting a single bedroom
apartment in Lethbridge is well
below $1,000 a month, compared to
Toronto where average rents are
nearly $2,000 a month.
"Affordability shouldn't only be about the basic necessities for
survival," says Claire Patterson,
Youthful Cities. "Affordability should also include the ability to
pay for those things that contribute to the vibrancy of a person's
life when they are able to move forward and meet those key
milestones we view as signs of success. In today's Canadian cities
opportunities to thrive simply aren't equally accessible to all
young people."
Key Barriers to
Affordability:
- Salaries and wages are not keeping pace with the
cost of living in Canadian cities. In all the cities indexed, the
minimum wage is not a liveable wage and gaps range between
$2 to $10. Incomes across the indexed cities indicate a
disparity of 30 per cent between the highest incomes in
Yellowknife and the lowest incomes
in Halifax.
- Full-time employment increases a young person's
ability to afford a city but it's not a guarantee. Two-thirds of
Canadian cities are still unaffordable even when young people are
employed full-time.
- Gender pay equity isn't a reality. After decades of
effort to create gender pay equity, young men continue to earn more
than young women in every city indexed. Wage disparity can
often be attributed to the reality that men hold a higher
percentage of trade jobs which earn higher wages in comparison to
women who hold a higher percentage of sales jobs earning lower
wages.
- Skills Development is paramount. Some hope can be
found in helping young people build the skills needed to enter into
new, better-paying careers.
"Young peoples' inability to afford to live in urban areas can
have many compounding negative effects including increased mental
health concerns as they face fears of missing out on life ahead and
attaining their goals and aspirations," says Mark Beckles, Vice-President, Social Innovation
and Impact, RBC. "Through Indexes like this one, RBC Future Launch
is raising awareness of the barriers facing young people and
helping provide a platform for young people to voice their concerns
so that we can listen. For our part, we are working with young
people, educational institutions and partners in the private and
public sectors to co-create long-term solutions to address these
barriers."
Canada could see a massive
drain on critical youthful talent now and into the future if
barriers including the ability to earn a living wage, access to
full-time employment, the wage gap among young men and young women
and the failure to provide opportunities to build needed and
necessary skills aren't addressed.
"Today's young people are still working to afford the toast,"
says Patterson. "Avocados seem a long way off."
RBC Future Launch is a decade-long, $500 million commitment to empowering Canadian
youth for the jobs of tomorrow. RBC is committed to acting as a
catalyst for change, bringing government, educators, public sector
and not-for-profits together to co-create solutions to help young
people better prepare for the future of the work through practical
work experience, skills development, networking and access to
mental well-being supports and services. In 2020, we committed to
investing $50 million from now to
2025 through RBC Future Launch to create meaningful and
transformative pathways to prosperity for up to 25,000 BIPOC youth
with investments in areas such as skills development and
mentoring.
Affordability Formula: Affordability is based on the formula:
Average income of 15-29 year-olds by city from Stats Canada minus
Cost of a youth-focused basket of goods/services by city per
month.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a
global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led
approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from
the 88,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights
to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our
clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank, and one of the largest
in the world based on market capitalization, we have a diversified
business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional
experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn
more at rbc.com.
We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives
through donations, community investments and employee volunteer
activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.
About Youthful Cities
Youthful Cities is a thinktank that creates data-driven
solutions enabling more youthful places to live work and play.
Since 2013 Youthful Cities has developed indexes globally to
help inform decision-makers about the needs of cities based on
youth voices. Our urban Indexes ignite an important dialogue about
the importance of youth to the future of cities.
SOURCE RBC