Alberta public sector wages falling behind

Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published the results of a recent survey they conducted with their members.

The Living Wage Survey ran from 29 April 2025 to 15 July 2025, with 4,157 AUPE members responding from 187 communities across the province.

Something I have noticed after writing hundreds of articles on collective agreements is that public sector workers in Alberta have, over the last decade, seen years of wage freezes and below inflation wage increases.

As a result, it came no surprise to me that AUPE’s survey results revealed that workers are struggling financially.

For example, of those who responded to the survey, 93% have had to eliminate at least one expense over just the past year. And not all of those eliminated expenses were extracurricular activities; some were things like childcare and transportation.

That is 9 out of every 10 respondents.

Roughly 2 out of every 3 respondents (65%) said they could not make regular bill payments on time over the past year, and a third (36%) reported missing the minimum monthly payment on their bills during the past year.

Alberta’s minimum wage of $15 an hour (not counting the $13 minimum wage for workers under 18 years old) is the lowest in the country.

The living wage—what workers need to meet basic expenses—is $21.63 an hour, according to the AUPE.

Alberta has not increased its minimum wage in 7 years, and the government remains uncommitted to supporting a living wage.

It should be no surprise then that Alberta has had the worst real wage growth in the country over the last decade. In fact, inflation-adjusted wages in Alberta have actually decreased since 2014.

AUPE’s survey results showed the importance of increasing wages beyond even a living wage. Results showed that workers who made more than $23–$26 an hour used the food bank half as much as those who made less than $18 an hour.

Sandra Azocar, AUPE vice-president and chair of the union’s Pay and Social Equity Committee, said that “Albertans deserve more than to scrape by. Raising wages is the right thing to do. It’s also the smart thing to do for our economy and our future.”