I just turned 30 and have left Canada for the foreseeable future relocating to south east Asia. I work a mid level IT job which paid good money and am a first generation Canadian born from Balkan parents who fled former Yugoslavia during the war in the early 90’s. Canada has given my family everything, we lived a normal middle class life but the cost of living basically made it impossible for anyone in their late 20’s to mid 30’s to afford leaving the parents house. I was fortunate enough to purchase a house pre pandemic but over the last couple years I have not been able to get “ahead”. It felt like I was working just to keep the lights on and the car running to get to work. I decided to sell everything and leave the country. My cost of living is 3x less here. My financial stress has basically turned to 0.
This is the slap in the face that prople need. The average low skilled labor is 30k per year. The average starter professional job is 60k per year. It costs 100k to live comfortably in Toronto.
I scrolled past but came back bc this is silly and there aren’t that many comments so someone might actually read this: Someone’s first minimum wage job shouldn’t be affording them the ability to buy a an average home, or pay average rent. 35k a year minimum wage is pretty fair. Learn a skill and get more if you want to live an average lifestyle
