Here's how much Canadians are earning on average — and the province where wages are highest

New data from Statistics Canada has revealed how much Canadians earn on average per week, along with average earnings across each province and territory.

The findings, which use data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), show that the average weekly earnings in Canada reached $1,333 in March 2026, up by 3.5 per cent compared to March 2025. This follows 2.8 per cent year-over-year increase recorded in February.

StatCan noted that, “Growth in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, including changes in wages, composition of employment, hours worked and base-year effects.”

In March, Canadians worked an average of 33.4 hours per week, remaining relatively unchanged month-over-month while declining 0.3 per cent year over year.

The StatCan data also revealed the average earnings in March 2026 for each province.

At the top of the list for earnings is Nunavut, where residents earned an average of $1,874.95 per week — an increase of 7.8 per cent year-over-year.

This is followd by Northwest Territories ($1,741.07), Yukon ($1,520.39), Alberta ($1,371.07), Ontario ($1,368.71), British Columbia ($1,348.36), Newfoundland and Labrador ($1,290.53), Saskatchewan ($1,288.82), Quebec ($1,283.60), New Brunswik ($1,231.77), Manitoba ($1,214.49), and Nova Scotia ($1,210.83).

At the bottom of the list is Prince Edward Island, where residents earned an average of $1,177.97 per week in March 2026 — an increase of 7.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2025, but nearly $700 less than Nunavut’s average.

All provinces recorded wage increases between March 2025 and March 2026. Nunavut’s wages increased the most, by 7.8 per cent, while Newfoundland and Labrador saw the smallest increase, at 1.2 per cent.

But despite these increased average wages, Canadians continue to feel the pinch.

Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.8 per cent in April, Statistics Canada said earlier this month, up from an increase of 2.4 per cent in March.

Much of the increase was attributed to higher gas prices, which were driven in part by the conflict in Iran.

This comes as documents recently obtained by National Post show that Canadian trucking and delivery companies have passed increased fuel costs on to customers, which economists say ultimately raises consumer prices.

Meanwhile, a recent TD survey revealed that more than one in three Canadians (35 per cent) plan to spend less this summer, with 44 per cent citing fuel costs as the reason they’ll be cutting back on travel.

The survey also found that Canadians are adapting to cost pressures through practices like redeeming loyalty points (66 per cent) and choosing lower-cost options like second-hand or DIY (36 per cent).

Elsewhere, the StatCan data revealed that job vacancies held steady at 500,300 in March 2026. This marks a 3.2 per cent decline when compared with the same month in 2025, though the report notes that this is significantly lower than the decline from March 2024 to March 2025, when job vacancies fell by 13.7 per cent. It was also the smallest year-over-year decline since September 2019.

There were three unemployed persons for every job vacancy in March 2026, according to the data, down by 0.1 persons from the previous month and unchanged on a year-over-year basis.

Areas where job vacancies had increased in March 2026 include administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (17.7 per cent), information and cultural industries (38.2 per cent) and utilities (28.4 per cent).

Meanwhile, vacancies were down in other services (except public administration) by 14.6 per cent, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation (-18.2 per cent) in March 2026.

Saskatchewan was the only province or territory to record a month-to-month increase in job vacancies (the first vacancy increase in this province since May 2024), but StatCan notes that “across provinces and territories, the job vacancy rate has stabilized or has declined at a slower rate in the 12-month period ending in March 2026 compared with the previous 12-month period.”

• What a comfortable income looks like in Canada, according to a new survey
• Canadians plan to spend less this summer, but one generation intends to splash out: survey

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