How Much Can you Expect to Make in Canada?

There are many factors to consider when deciding whether to relocate to Canada or not. Immigrating to a new country is a big commitment and it required a significant monetary investment from purchasing flights, buying new furniture, paying the legal fees, possibly retaining a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, etc. 

Most prospective immigrants are curious to know how much they can expect to earn once in Canada. Although it is impossible to know for sure, there is some data that can be useful in making predictions. 

The minimum wage and average salaries

In Canada, each province or territory has a legal minimum wage. That is the hourly wage under which it is illegal for employers to pay you. This means that you can count on being paid at least the following wages for any job in Canada. 

It can also be useful to look at the annual average salaries for each province. As a whole, the average salary in Canada is around $51,000 and the GDP per capita is USD $48,300, which is essentially the amount of money generated in Canada divided by the number of inhabitants. Canada currently ranks in the world's top 35, well before many other developed countries such as Belgium, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Finland, the European Union as a whole, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, and many more.

Provinces and Territories	Minimum Hourly Wage	Annual Average Salary
Alberta	$15	$59,384
British Columbia	$13.85*	$49,244
Manitoba	$11.65*	$47,632
New Brunswick	$11.50	$46,644
Newfoundland and Labrador	$11.40	$53,820
Northwest Territories	$13.46	-
Nova Scotia	$11.55	$45,292
Nunavut	$13	-
Ontario	$14	$52,260
Prince Edward Island	$12.25	$42,380
Quebec	$12.50*	$47,320
Saskatchewan	$11.06	​$52,728
Yukon	$12.71	-

* Minimum wage is set to increase to this amount later in 2019
- Data Unavailable

Income and sales taxes

Canadians are generally heavily taxed in order to fund world-class universally available services such as health care and education. On average, Canadians spend more on taxes than they do on basic necessities such as housing. In fact, a typical Canadian family will pay 42.5% of their income to the government. This may be something you are not used to and that you must account for when budgeting. Unlike many other countries, Canada does not include the sales tax to prices displayed in stores. As such, shoppers have to add between 5% and 15% to the cost of most items they purchase, depending on where they live. You can estimate your after-tax income online. It's impossible to truly know how much one individual will pay in taxes without more information. There are a long list of tax deductible expenses and tax credits available to help you reduce the amount of tax you will owe at the end of the year. Fortunately, most employers will automatically take money off your pay-check so you only need to make minor adjustments at the end of the year to either pay a little more or claim a refund if you overpaid. 

Cost of living

The cost of living in Canada is very reasonable. Only one Canadian city made it to the top 30 of the world's most expensive city and only another city made the top 100. 

Occupation specific salary data

In Canada, professional occupations are attribued NOCs (National Occupational Classification). Once you know what your NOC is, you can look at job prospects and salary expectations by towns, cities, regions, and provinces.