Alberta had largest real wages cut in Canada

Earlier this year, Statistics Canada released January 2024 labour market data for the country and its provinces. One of the datasets included in the update was employee wages by industry.

I was curious how Alberta wages fared compared to those in the other provinces, not this past January but over a longer period. As well, I was curious to see how wages have increased along with inflation.

To start, here are the average hourly wages for each province, as of January 2024.

BC	$36.24
ON	$36.14
AB	$35.44
QC	$33.32
SK	$32.30
NL	$32.27
NB	$30.33
MB	$30.17
NS	$29.92
PEI	$28.86

As you can see, employees in Alberta had the third highest average hourly wage in the country. Which is interesting because until just a few months ago, Alberta had the largest wages in the country.

For example, here’s what January 2023 looked like.

AB	$34.04
BC	$33.96
ON	$33.96
QC	$32.25
SK	$31.30
NL	$30.41
MB	$29.13
NB	$28.38
PEI	$28.34
NS	$28.16

See? Alberta is on top; although only by a nickel.

Except this development shouldn’t have surprised anyone keeping track. Here, take a look at every January over the last 10 years.

See? Until recently, Alberta has always had a higher wage than the other provinces. Or, at least going back a decade. And by a long shot.

In January 2014, for example, Alberta’s average hourly wage was more than $2.50 above the next highest province.

For the first 6 years in this reporting period, between January 2013 and January 2019, the gap between Alberta and whichever province had the second highest wage had been pretty consistent.

However, starting in January 2020, that gap began shrinking.

In January 2014, for example, Alberta employees made an average of $28.95 an hour, while workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, who had the second highest wages, were making $26.36 an hour. That’s a gap of $2.59.

In January 2019, that gap was $3.36. But then it started shrinking: $2.71 in January 2020, $1.79 in January 2021, $0.39 in January 2022, and, finally, just $0.08 in January 2023.

And in January 2024, the gap was gone, and Alberta was dethroned. And not to just second place, either; they dropped to third place, 80¢ behind first-place BC and 70¢ behind Ontario.

So, what’s going on?

Well, let’s take a look at a few things. First, let’s start with how much each province has seen their average hourly wage change over the last 10 years.

	Jan 2014	Jan 2024	Change	% change
BC	$25.01	$36.24	$11.23	44.90%
ON	$25.34	$36.14	$10.80	42.62%
QC	$23.68	$33.32	$9.64	40.71%
NB	$21.68	$30.33	$8.65	39.90%
PEI	$20.96	$28.86	$7.90	37.69%
NS	$22.15	$29.92	$7.77	35.08%
MB	$22.69	$30.17	$7.48	32.97%
SK	$25.55	$32.30	$6.75	26.42%
AB	$28.95	$35.44	$6.49	22.42%
NL	$26.36	$32.27	$5.91	22.42%

While Alberta does have the third highest average wages in the country, they had the second lowest increase over the last decade. BC, which had the largest increase, saw their average worker wages jump by over $5 more an hour than Alberta did. That’s nearly twice as much.

On a percentage basis, Alberta was tied with Newfoundland and Labrador for the smallest increase, at only 22.42%. The largest percentage increase was, once again, in BC, where the average worker saw their hourly wage increase by 44.90%.

Now, check out this table, which shows the consumer price index for each province during the same period.

	Jan 2014	Jan 2024	Change	% change
BC	117.1	152.6	35.5	30.32%
ON	123.3	159.9	36.6	29.68%
NB	123.4	158.5	35.1	28.44%
AB	129.9	165.9	36.0	27.71%
MB	123.4	157.5	34.1	27.63%
QC	121.7	154.8	33.1	27.20%
NS	127.4	162.0	34.6	27.16%
SK	126.4	159.7	33.3	26.34%
NL	126.7	159.8	33.1	26.12%
PEI	129.2	162.6	33.4	25.85%

In both January 2014 and January 2024, Alberta had the highest consumer price index, which means that Alberta had the highest increase in the cost of living since the index was set to 100. Remember, this is the average over the entire province, not just large cities.

During that time, Alberta’s consumer price index increased by 36 points. In other words, inflation was 27.71%, which was the fourth highest in the country.

But keep in mind that average worker wages during that same period increased by 22.42%. In other words, inflation was more than 5 points higher than wage increases.

Here’s how wages and inflation compare for each province over the last decade.

	Wages increase	Inflation	Difference
BC	44.90%	30.32%	14.59%
QC	40.71%	27.20%	13.51%
ON	42.62%	29.68%	12.94%
PEI	37.69%	25.85%	11.84%
NB	39.90%	28.44%	11.45%
NS	35.08%	27.16%	7.92%
MB	32.97%	27.63%	5.33%
SK	26.42%	26.34%	0.07%
NL	22.42%	26.12%	-3.70%
AB	22.42%	27.71%	-5.30%

Alberta was one of only 2 provinces where average wages increased slower than inflation—Newfoundland and Labrador being the other one.

Not only that, but the gap between wages and inflation was worse in Alberta than in any other province, with inflation increases more than 5 percentage points more than average wages.

This means that Alberta workers saw the largest reduction in real wages, on average, in the country.

Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation. Even though wages increased 22.42% over the last decade, because inflation was 27.71% these workers saw what amounts to effectively a wage cut of more than 5% during this period.

Had wages in Alberta actually kept up with inflation, the average worker in Alberta should have seen their wages increase by $8.02 an hour over the last 10 years, for a total $36.97 an hour, instead of $35.44.

That works out to about $3,200 a year.