Here's how much you have to earn to afford living in Toronto in 2026

Toronto's cost of living doesn't seem to be making any progress towards affordability in recent years, but how much money do you really have to make to afford a comfortable life here?

According to the newest figures from Ontario's Living Wage Network (OLWN), the cost of living in Toronto more than measures up to its costly reputation. 

Definitions of what makes a "comfortable" or "feasible" living vary drastically depending on who you ask, so OLWN calculated these figures based on the living costs of variously sized families, weighing and averaging those expenses before adding 4 per cent as an emergency measure.

The findings should be somewhat validating for anyone who has been trying and struggling to make ends meet on minimum-wage hourly pay. To afford life in Toronto — including shelter, food, clothing, transportation, et cetera — a person would have to make a minimum of $27.60 per hour, nearly $10 more than the province's current minimum wage.

If you're working a typical 40-hour week, that adds up to an annual salary of $57,403. 

The study pulled figures from the rest of the province, too, finding that Grey-Bruce-Perth-Huron-Simcoe clocks in as the next most expensive region in Ontario, requiring an hourly wage of at least $24.75 to live.

The region whose required hourly wage comes closest to the real minimum wage was London-Elgin-Oxford at $21.15, $3.20 above the provincial minimum wage.

While OLWN's calculation that GTA residents would need to make a minimum of $27.60 an hour to afford a relatively comfortable existence is staggering, it actually falls on the more modest side compared to similar figures from other entities.

In 2025, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) estimated that one would have to earn at least $37.66 per hour to afford a one-bedroom rental and have money left over for other living expenses. In the same year, Canadian real estate site Zoocasa calculated that, to afford the city's average rent, workers would need to earn around $44.13 per hour.

The bottom line we can draw from these figures? Nowhere in Ontario is the current minimum wage enough to sustain a financially feasible, happy and healthy life. And with the provincial minimum wage increasing to $17.95 from $17.60 on Oct. 1, 2026, and not set to do so again until next October, it doesn't look like minimum wage workers in Ontario will see much relief any time soon.