Many provinces in Canada are raising their minimum wage, but hold your applause — it’s still not enough to cover the essentials. This week, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, P.E.I., and Ontario increased minimum wages, with Ontario now at $17.20 an hour after a 65-cent raise. Sounds nice, right? But some experts argue it’s still falling short of what workers actually need to cover their basic expenses. Enter the concept of a living wage. This is the amount necessary to pay for essentials like housing and food. While minimum wages in most provinces have been raised recently, so have living wages, boosted by higher inflation. That means that minimum-wage workers, who represent 8.8% of all workers in the country, are getting pay bumps, just to put that extra money right back into keeping up with their fixed expenses. That’s led many to switch to higher-paying jobs and pushed more employers to pay a bit more than minimum wage to retain employees.