Here’s where Canadians are earning the most — and the region where wages are lowest

Canadians are earning 3.4 per cent more than they were last year, and the region with the largest average earnings sees its residents make almost $700 a week more than those in the lowest-earning province.

That’s according to new Statistics Canada data, which reveal 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 $1,337.77 in May this year, compared to $1,293.19 in the same month in 2025.

This figure is little changed from April this year, when average weekly earnings were recorded at $1,343.52, which had marked a 3.7 per cent year-over-year increase.

StatCan notes that “in general, 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 May this year, average weekly hours worked stood at 33.4 hours and were little changed on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis, the data reveals.

This latest report also broke down average weekly earnings in Canada for each province and territory.

At the top of the list is Nunavut, where residents earned an average of $1,862.20 per week in May — compared to $1,747.62 in the same month in 2025.

This is followed by Northwest Territories ($1,765.69), Yukon ($1,505.43), Alberta ($1,378.85), Ontario ($1,377.49), British Columbia ($1,354.67), Saskatchewan (1,298.13), Quebec ($1,293.11), Newfoundland and Labrador ($1,266.10), New Brunswick ($1,228.55), Manitoba ($1,218.31) and Nova Scotia ($1,217.66).

At the bottom of the list is Prince Edward Island, where residents earned an average of $1,189.61 per week in May 2026. This was an increase on the $1,138.65 earned per week in May 2025, but nearly $700 less than Nunavut’s current average.

And, despite the year-over-year increase in average wages, Canadians are continuing to feel their budgets squeezed. A recent TD survey found that more than 1 in 3 Canadians (35 per cent) planned to spend less this summer, with 62 per cent of those who are cutting back redirecting spending towards everyday needs, such as groceries, fuel and housing.

This comes as recent StatCan data revealed that grocery price inflation increased more than overall inflation for the 17th consecutive month in June.

Driven by lower gasoline prices at the pumps, the overall inflation rate eased to 2.8 per cent in June after a 3.2 per cent increase in May. And though the cost of food purchased from stores grew at a slower pace (+3.9 per cent) than in May (+4.3 per cent), categories that experienced double-digit price increases in June included tomatoes (+31.7 per cent), lettuce (+19.3 per cent), carrots (+16.6 per cent), fresh or frozen beef (+13.8 per cent) and bananas (+11.5 per cent).

Elsewhere, recent StatCan data revealed that job vacancies held steady overall at 495,700 in May 2026, marking the fifth consecutive month of little variation in job vacancies in Canada. Year-over-year job vacancies were also little changed.

In four sectors, job vacancies were up in May: construction (+18.4 per cent), professional, scientific and technical services (+13.8 per cent), finance and insurance (+10.7 per cent) and real estate and rental and leasing (25 per cent).

Meanwhile, job vacancies were down in health care and social assistance (-11.6 per cent) and information and cultural industries (-39 per cent). The decrease in job vacancies in health care and social assistance was the first significant monthly decrease for this sector since December 2024, and the lowest since March 2020.

Ontario was the only province to record a significant monthly variation in job vacancies in May, with an increase of 5.6 per cent.