According to Surrey Civic Coalition candidate Stephanie Ryan, the issue of a living wage for civic employees should be viewed as nonpartisan, and she supports it.

Municipal politicians, mostly outside Vancouver, have made the strongest commitment to follow New Westminster’s lead in enacting a living-wage policy if they’re elected on November 19.

This is based on the responses by more than 120 candidates across the Lower Mainland to an open letter by a campaign supported by various organizations and spearheaded by First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.

Council and school-board candidates of the Surrey Civic Coalition indicated that they are “fully supportive” of a policy providing a living wage for civic employees as well as private workers providing services to the city government.

“It’s an issue that should be viewed as nonpartisan,” SCC council candidate Stephanie Ryan told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “I mean, New West[minster] council, when they passed their living-wage policy, people from left and right of the spectrum did it realizing that it would better the lives of a lot of families within their jurisdiction.”

On January 1, 2011, New Westminster became the first city in Canada to implement a living wage. It’s the minimum hourly pay required for a family of four with two working parents working full-time to meet their basic needs.

For 2008, the living family wage was calculated by participants in the campaign at $16.74 per hour in the Greater Vancouver region. For this year, it has been adjusted to $18.81 or $34,234 annually for each parent working full-time.

That amount doesn’t cover items like loan payments and savings for children’s future education.

The campaign letter asked politicians to choose from the following responses: fully supportive, supportive, interested, and not supportive.

In addition to the SCC, candidates for the Burnaby Greens, Richmond Independent Team of Electors, Richmond Citizens Association, and many independents across the region indicated that they are either supportive or fully supportive of a living-wage policy.

In Vancouver, the seven council candidates of the ruling Vision Vancouver party indicated that they are “interested” and want to know more. Six of them are incumbents.

It was the same answer given by incumbent Vision mayor Gregor Robertson and his main opponent, Suzanne Anton of the Non-Partisan Association.

Council and school-board candidates of Vision’s allied party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, indicated that they are “supportive”.

Darrell Mussatto was the only other incumbent mayor who responded to the letter. He indicated that he was “supportive”.

According to Amela Karabegovic, a senior economist with the Fraser Institute, more than 140 cities across the U.S. have living-wage policies in various forms. She asserted that based on the American experience, this type of policy causes unemployment among the lowest-paid workers.

“A 10-percent increase in living wage decreases employment between one to two percent,” Karabegovic told the Straight by phone. “So instead of helping poor individuals, it prevents some of them from getting a job.”

Seth Klein strongly disagreed with this claim. He is the B.C. director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, one of the groups that helps compute living wages.

“I think they’re talking out of thin air,” Klein told the Straight about the Fraser Institute’s view. He added that it’s too early to determine the effects of New Westminster’s policy.

According to a living-wage discussion campaign paper, about 25 percent of couples with children and 50 percent of single parents with kids in Metro Vancouver earn below the suggested pay level.