Wage Trend

Wages

The median hourly wage for employees at the national level rose from $26.00 to $27.00, which means it grew by 3.8% (or $1.00) in 2022. This brings the growth path of wages closer to its historical pattern, following a large increase of 6.3% in 2020 – mainly driven by job losses among low-wage earners due to COVID-19.

Nova Scotia experienced a 4.3% increase in the median hourly wage in 2022.  

  • The median wage for the goods-producing sector grew by 4.2% while increasing in the service-producing sector by 3.8% in 2022 compared to 2021.
  • The median wage for the services-producing sector grew by an average of 3.2% from 2017 through 2022, while the median wage in the goods-producing sector grew by an average of 2.6%.
  • The median hourly wage for males increased by 4.2% in 2022, whereas the growth observed for females was 4.1%, compared to 2021.
  • Over the five-year period between 2017 and 2022, wages increased on average by 3.0% for females and by 2.9% for males.
  • Between 2021 and 2022, median hourly wages for full-time employment increased by 2.9%, outpaced by part-time median wages increasing by 4.2%.

Table. Column headings are Category, Median Hourly Wages (ages 15 and over) (2017, 2021, 2022), Annual % Change 2020-2021, and Average Annual % Change 2017-2022. Rows show Canada, Nova Scotia, and then sub-rows for Nova Scotia are goods-producing sector, services-producing sector, males, females, full-time, part-time, and minimum wage.

Wages by Province

Nova Scotia’s year-over-year increase in the median hourly wage ranked 4th among the ten provinces at 4.3%. The national wage growth was 3.8%.

  • Quebec demonstrated the highest wage growth in the country by this measure at 7.8%, followed by Prince Edward Island at 5.5% and New Brunswick at 4.8%. 
  • Nova Scotia had the second-lowest median hourly wage among provinces at $23.08, ahead of only Prince Edward Island at $23.07. Both provinces held the same rankings in 2021.
  • The highest median wage rate in the country in 2022 was in Alberta, at $28.85. 

Vertical bar chart titled “Median Hourly Wage by Province 2022, Ages 15 years and over”. Vertical axis has $ in increments of 5 starting with 0 at the bottom and ending with $35 at the top. Horizontal axis has Canada, NL, PE, NS, NB, PQ, ON, MB, SK, AB, BC. Blue vertical bars represent the median wage by province. All are medium blue except NS which is dark blue. Canada is red.

Unionized Wages

In 2022, Nova Scotia’s median hourly wage for unionized employees ($29.90) was $9.27 higher than for non-unionized employees ($20.63).  When compared to 2021, the province’s median hourly wage growth for unionized and non-unionized wages was 3.2% for both. 

New Brunswick had the highest growth in median hourly wages for unionized employees (9.6%) and Prince Edward Island had the highest growth in hourly wages for non-unionized employees (10.9%) in 2022 compared to 2021.

Vertical bar chart titled “Median Hourly Wage by Union Status and Province 2022, Ages 15 years and over”. Vertical axis has $ in increments of 5 starting with 0 at the bottom and ending with $40 at the top. Horizontal axis has Canada, NL, PE, NS, NB, PQ, ON, MB, SK, AB, BC. Blue vertical bars represent the median wage by province. Each province has two bars. Dark blue = union coverage. Light blue = Non union coverage.