When the tutor was in high school, a course called Consumer Education was mandatory.

The beautiful, energetic high school students of today will, sooner or later, be workers. They will gain one kind of freedom at the expense of another.

Even at age 18, I never paid attention to prices.  By age 22, I did.  A university student sharing a 1BR apartment, I was very poor.  I finished my degree at age 25, always working a minimum wage job on the side.  Being young was fun in ways, but making a living was sobering.

Statistics Canada has a measure called the Consumer Price Index or CPI .  For many, its immediate use is tracking the cost of living.

The scale works as follows:  the base cost of 100 represents the year 2002.  Each year (or month) thence is given a number that compares its cost of living to that of 2002.  For BC, the November 2014 CPI was 118.8 (statcan.gc.ca), meaning the cost of living had increased by 18.8% since 2002.

Of course, the cost of living is only half the story.  To begin to know how much harder, or easier, it is to make a living, we need to compare the increase in cost of living with the increase in wages.

Among the people most affected by changing prices are those earning minimum wage. In 2002, the BC minimum wage was $8/hr (hrvoice.org); now, it’s $10.25 (globalnews.ca).  The percent increase is (10.25-8)/8 = 0.28 or 28%.

Although living’s not easy on minumum wage, it seems the wage itself has gone up by 28% since 2002, while the cost of living has increased by 18.8% over that period. That’s for BC.

There is endless material for discussion in the world of home economics. Look for more posts about it coming soon:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.