A study comparing income in Canada’s ten provinces with 50 American states showed that Canadians are getting poorer and earning less on average than their American counterparts.
According to a Fraser Institute study, The wage and earnings gap between Canadian Provinces has grown compared to their American state counterparts since 2010.
Every Canadian province now ranks lower in median per-person income than each of the 50 US states.
The study measured each jurisdiction’s median economic earnings from 2010 to 2022, using purchasing price parities in 2017 as the base year of comparison.
“This twelve-year period allows for the analysis of a full business cycle following the 2008 recession through to 2022 when the economic effects of the global COVID pandemic began to subside,’ the study said.
Statistics Canada, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis provided most of the data used for the time period measured.
“The data on earnings in this study show that, in general, Canadian provinces are getting poorer relative to their US peers. Further, Canada’s poorest provinces are the poorest in both countries and fell even further behind their US peers between 2010 and 2022,” the study said.
Alberta was the top-earning province in 2010, with the average Albertan making $40,525 and the only province to appear in the top half of the 60 jurisdictions it was measured against. Alberta was still the highest-earning Canadian jurisdiction in 2022 but was surpassed by all US states, though in 2010, only 12 US states reported higher median income.
Saskatchewan had the tenth-lowest median earnings, followed by Ontario with the ninth-lowest, beating only Idaho in 2010. The average Saskatchewan resident made $33,971, Ontario with $33,471, and Idaho in eighth place with $33,208.
The other seven provinces ranked below Idaho, the lowest-earning state in 2010.
By 2022, Alberta had the tenth lowest reported income out of the 60 jurisdictions, with the average Albertan making $38,969 that year. BC came in ninth place with a median income of $37,801.
The Atlantic provinces reported the lowest median income rates in 2022, with PEI coming last. The average Islander made $28,784 that year.
Seven Canadian provinces ranked near the bottom of earnings growth between 2010 and 2022.
“Both the relatively low rankings of Canadian provinces as well as the relative lack of growth in Canada should be a cause for concern for Canadians and policymakers alike, given the close connection between incomes and living standards,” it said.
After adjusting for inflation and currency, BC had the strongest earnings growth of all the provinces in that period, yet its growth only ranked 19 among the 60 provinces and states it was compared to. The province’s median earnings grew by $7,732 when compared to its listing in 2010.
Alberta was the only jurisdiction to see median earnings growth decline between 2010 and 2022, with a decline of $1,555 in inflation-adjusted income, though it’s still the province with the highest wages and earnings per capita.
“Albertans, who out-earned Texans in 2010, fell behind by 2022. As a result of negative income growth in Alberta combined with strong growth in Texas, Alberta’s lead of $3,423 per person became a deficit with Texas of $5,254 by 2022,” the study said.
Canadians report feeling the negative strain of the economy, too.
According to a Leger 360 poll, six out of ten Canadians believe the country is in an economic recession. Of Canadians aged 18-34, 67% believed the same.
The survey was conducted from Sept. 27 to 29 with 1,626 Canadians and 1010 US residents aged 18 and older, randomly selected from Leger’s LEO’s online panel.
Although a margin of error can’t be associated with a non-probability panel survey such as this, a probability sample of this size yields a margin of error of no greater than 2.43% 19 times out of twenty.
Nearly half of Canadians, 47%, reported living paycheck-to-paycheck and 57% of Canadians aged 18-34 reported the same.
The Ministry of Finance and its Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland did not respond to True North’s request to comment.
