Canadian Wages and Income Over the Past Three Decades

An article in Statistics Canada’s Economic Insights series “examines two questions: (1) Which groups of Canadian workers have experienced stronger real wage growth over the past three decades?; and (2) To what extent do individuals’ acquisition of education, general work experience, and seniority within firms, as well as their movements into higher-wage or lower-wage occupations and industries, account for differences in real wage growth observed across groups of workers? This article uses data from various Statistics Canada surveys and focuses on the real (hourly or weekly) wages earned by full-time workers. It is based on research carried out at Statistics Canada aimed at providing information on how wage rates of Canadian workers have changed over the past three decades. Wages are expressed in 2010 dollars”.

Statistics Canada, June 2012: “Analytical Paper: Wage Growth over the Past 30 Years: Changing Wages by Age and Education”, by René Morissette, Garnett Picot, and Yuqian Lu, Economic Analysis Division
(Full paper, PDF, 12 pages)

“Median after-tax income for families of two or more people amounted to $65,500 in 2010, virtually unchanged from 2009. This was the third consecutive year without significant change in after-tax income”.
Statistics Canada, June 2012: Income of Canadians, 2010. (PDF, 4 pages)