Work and Salaries

Job Bank wages, explained

Job Bank is the Government of Canada employment service. Its wage pages are built from a published open dataset, which is the same data used throughout this section.

Como ler este número

How to read this figure

This figure is a statistic for a whole group of people doing job bank wages, explained, not a quote for any one job offer. It is pulled up by the highest earners more than a median would be.

De onde vem o dado

Source: Employment and Social Development Canada / Job Bank, Wages (2025 open data)

Reference period: wage data revised 2025-11-19. Data collected on: 7 October 2026.

Cuidado

What this number does not tell you

This number does not know your employer, your experience or your location — all of which move real pay more than the national average does. Treat job bank wages, explained here as a starting point for negotiation, not a ceiling or a floor.

O que fazer com isso

What to do with this figure

Check the official source below for the full methodology, then compare this figure with job adverts for job bank wages, explained in your own region before relying on it.

What the three numbers mean

For each occupation Job Bank shows a low, a median and a high wage. The median is the middle wage. The low and high wages are close to the 10th and 90th percentiles, so roughly a tenth of workers earn below the low wage and a tenth above the high wage.

The dataset covers 516 occupations of the 2021 National Occupational Classification, for Canada, each province and territory and about 70 economic regions. Most wages come from the Labour Force Survey; some come from Small Area Estimation, Employment Insurance records or the 2021 Census, and each occupation page says which.

Almost all occupations are published as hourly wages. A few, mostly management and professional roles where hourly pay makes little sense, are published as annual wages instead.

The highest median wages in Canada

Occupations with the highest median hourly wage, Canada

OccupationNOCLowMedianHigh
Senior managers - financial, communications and other business services00012CA$51.28 an hourCA$96.15 an hourCA$153.85 an hour
Managers in natural resources production and fishing80010CA$43.27 an hourCA$72.12 an hourCA$134.62 an hour
Engineering managers20010CA$44.42 an hourCA$71.79 an hourCA$106.25 an hour
Commissioned police officers and related occupations in public protection services40040CA$51.28 an hourCA$68.75 an hourCA$93.75 an hour
Computer and information systems managers20012CA$43.75 an hourCA$66.67 an hourCA$103.37 an hour
Senior government managers and officials00011CA$40.00 an hourCA$65.38 an hourCA$105.77 an hour
Petroleum engineers21332CA$46.25 an hourCA$64.90 an hourCA$96.15 an hour
Government managers - education policy development and program administration40012CA$47.01 an hourCA$63.74 an hourCA$68.68 an hour
Government managers - economic analysis, policy development and program administration40011CA$47.60 an hourCA$63.40 an hourCA$80.22 an hour
Fire chiefs and senior firefighting officers40041CA$37.02 an hourCA$62.64 an hourCA$83.84 an hour
Architecture and science managers20011CA$43.27 an hourCA$62.56 an hourCA$98.90 an hour
Nurse practitioners31302CA$42.00 an hourCA$61.54 an hourCA$75.00 an hour
Government managers - health and social policy development and program administration40010CA$46.00 an hourCA$61.54 an hourCA$75.00 an hour
Utilities managers90011CA$40.38 an hourCA$61.00 an hourCA$93.75 an hour
Other managers in public administration40019CA$40.87 an hourCA$60.51 an hourCA$80.13 an hour
Corporate sales managers60010CA$36.54 an hourCA$60.10 an hourCA$112.00 an hour
Mining engineers21330CA$37.02 an hourCA$60.00 an hourCA$115.38 an hour
Veterinarians31103CA$34.15 an hourCA$60.00 an hourCA$84.13 an hour
Lawyers and Quebec notaries41101CA$30.22 an hourCA$59.76 an hourCA$107.14 an hour
Financial managers10010CA$38.50 an hourCA$59.48 an hourCA$91.76 an hour

What it does not tell you

The wage data describes an occupation in a region, not a particular job advert. It does not include overtime, bonuses or tips, and it does not distinguish between employers. For a public sector job the collective agreement is the authoritative figure.

What does "wage data revised 2025-11-19" mean for job bank wages, explained?

The figures for job bank wages, explained come from Employment and Social Development Canada / Job Bank, Wages (2025 open data), with a reference period of wage data revised 2025-11-19. Pay statistics like this one are not updated in real time: the underlying survey or register takes months to collect and process, so the number reflects pay around that date, not today. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

Glossário: os termos desta página

Median vs. mean

The median is the middle value when every salary is lined up from lowest to highest: half earn less, half earn more. The mean is the simple average. A handful of very high salaries pulls the mean up without moving the median, so the median is usually the better guide to what a typical person earns.

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Gross vs. net pay

Gross pay is what an employer pays before tax, social security and other deductions. Net pay, or take-home pay, is what actually reaches the bank account afterwards. A figure that does not say which one it is should be treated as gross, since that is what most official pay surveys publish.

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Full-time equivalent

A way of converting part-time hours into the pay a full-time version of the same job would earn, so that a two-day-a-week role can be compared fairly with a five-day one. Figures that mix full-time and part-time workers without adjusting for this tend to understate typical full-time pay.

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Reference period

The point in time, or the stretch of time, that a published figure actually describes. Pay surveys take months to collect and process, so the reference period is usually well before the date the figures are released, and always before the date you are reading them.

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Occupational classification

A standard code that groups similar jobs so that pay statistics can be compared across employers and over time — the UK uses SOC, Canada uses NOC, the United States uses SOC as well, and the European Union uses ISCO. The same job title can sit in different codes depending on the classification used.

Fonte: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Pay statistics glossary — todos os 10 termos.

Source: Employment and Social Development Canada / Job Bank, Wages (2025 open data)

Licence: Open Government Licence - Canada

Reference period: wage data revised 2025-11-19

Data collected on: 7 October 2026

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

Figures are statistical averages for a whole group of employees. Your own pay depends on your employer, your experience, your hours and where you work.

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