MONTREAL — Erendira Achati Keriti needed winter clothes, but she knew she couldn't afford to buy them new. She managed to save enough money to buy second-hand garments, only to find they'd already been snapped up by the time she made it back to the thrift store. Keriti, a 39-year-old Toronto resident, said she struggles financially despite the fact she is employed.

As low-wage workers complain they can barely make ends meet, a movement is growing to raise the minimum wage to $15. (Photo: Getty Images) She's one of a number of low-wage workers who have trouble making ends meet and who believe Canadian provinces need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. While Alberta has pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15 by October 2018, others have declined to follow. Quebec will raise its minimum wage to $11.25 from $10.75 on Monday — a hike Keriti and several other workers interviewed by The Canadian Press say is insufficient. Keriti doesn't have a steady job, surviving instead on short-term painting and construction jobs. She says she sometimes arrives at a job site only to be told there isn't any work for her, meaning she and her partner live in constant insecurity. "At the moment I have nothing permanent in my life because I don't know how much money I will make in the next month and how much I will be paid,'' she said in a phone interview. Mathieu Proulx, who earns $13.50 an hour as a maintenance worker in Montreal's Old Port, says he sometimes feels like he's surviving rather than living. "You're always waiting for the next cheque,'' said Proulx, 43. "As soon as there's an unforeseen (expense), everything becomes unbalanced.''