It's getting more expensive to live in Hamilton and the coalition pushing for a living wage here wants to increase its target to reflect the new costs.

For 10 years the Hamilton Living Wage Working Group, a coalition of academic, social service and business agencies, has been arguing for a wage based on what it actually costs to live here rather than the political compromise number of the provincial minimum wage.

Five years ago the group calculated that wage was $14.95 an hour. Now, after a cumulative cost of living increase of seven per cent, they say it should be between $16 and $17 an hour. The general minimum wage for Ontario is $11.25 an hour.

For Tom Cooper, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction and co-director of the Ontario Living Wage Network, the living wage drive is a moral imperative.

"There are 30,000 people in Hamilton now who work every day but cannot earn enough to pull themselves out of poverty," he told a working group meeting Tuesday.

The gathering was to welcome a dozen new employers into the program, bringing the total to about 30.

Working group chair Judy Travis, of Workforce Planning Hamilton, said while the new members are welcome, the campaign continues to struggle to gain traction in Hamilton.

Part of that struggle, she said, is the simple fact that "a living wage isn't for every employer." Also, "We still lack the feet on the ground to be out there" selling the idea to employers.

Caroline Reilly, senior program manager of the Living Wage Foundation of the U.K., said a key development in her campaign was getting several large employers to sign on to the campaign, showing through their experience there's a serious business case behind the idea.

One large, national firm, for example, decided to apply the living wage model to its building cleaning staff and shaved 150,000 pounds sterling ($290,000 Cdn) off its costs of one building through reduced absenteeism, higher productivity and morale, and lower staff turnover.

Research among companies supporting the program, she said, has shown better pay can help cut absenteeism by 25 per cent and staff turnover by 75 per cent. Surveys have also shown 70 per cent of consumers responding say they would choose to deal with a business supporting the living wage idea.

The British movement got a second major boost this year when the national government included the living wage idea in its budget, delivering a pay hike to six million workers in April.

Reilly said what the government tabled was really an enhanced minimum wage, but it at least got the living wage idea into broad circulation.

"For the first time we saw those words on the front pages of our tabloids," she said. "Even if it wasn't the ideal, you have to celebrate every win along the way."

Deirdre Pike, a founding member of the living wage group, said the new calculation will reflect higher costs for food, rent, child care, utilities, Internet access (now considered a necessity rather than luxury item), transportation and "social inclusion costs," such as recreation programs "and a nice little vacation."

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The new figure is expected to be finalized and announced in November.

Studies have shown almost 50,000 Hamiltonians depend on social assistance or disability support payments to survive; 12,658 of them are children. Most recent figures suggest 19 per cent of Hamiltonians live below the poverty line.