Human Development Council finds $9 gap between minimum wage and living wage

New Brunswick's Human Development Council has found a $9 gap between the minimum wage and what they call a living wage. The provincial living wage is $24.84 an hour, according to the report. That's compared to New Brunswick's minimum wage of $15.90 an hour. The living wage calculated for Fredericton, Moncton and St. John is $29.32, $25.54 and $24.44 respectively. The Human Development Council considers a living wage to be the hourly rate required for a family of four, with two parents working full-time and two children, to maintain a modest standard of living. Liam Fisher is a data analyst with the Human Development Council. He says an estimated 40 percent of employees in New Brunswick did not earn a living wage in 2025. So what that tells us is that for the large proportion of New Brunswickers that are earning less than the living wage, they're often forced to make rather difficult choices about where their money is allocated. Food tends to be a more flexible budget item, and that's where families will often sacrifice lower quality food or a lower amount of food. We also know from tracking other indicators on well-being in New Brunswick that food bank use has gone up. Social assistance use has gone up in a number of ways.