The City of Vancouver has ended its living wage policy that had been in place for the past six years.

Following a closed-door meeting on Jan. 31, councillors approved the action and will direct staff to revise the program, implementing a five-year rolling average living wage to be used as “the standard to pay fair wages to direct employees and contracted service providers.”

Following the council’s move to drop the initiative, the living wage for Metro-Vancouver will be $20.90 an hour, a decrease from the current level of $24.08 per hour, according to Living Wage for Families BC (LWFBC), which has been advocating for the program.

The living wage saw the highest increase last year since it was first calculated in 2008, rising to $24.08 an hour in Metro Vancouver from $20.52 in the previous year. The 17.3 percent growth was “significantly higher than the rate of inflation,” LWFBC said in a November 2022 statement.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.