Wage Trend

Wages

The median hourly wage for employees at the national level grew by 2.0% in 2021. 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 more dramatic increase in the median wage in 2020 (9.9%), followed by only a 0.1% increase in 2021.  

  • The median wage for the goods-producing sector in the province had a lower growth rate (0.3%) than the services-producing sector (1.2%) in 2021 compared to 2020.
  • The services-producing sector grew by an average of 2.9% from 2016 through 2021, while the goods-producing sector grew by an average of 1.9%.
  • The median hourly wage for males increased by 0.6% in 2020, whereas the growth observed for females was 1.2%.
  • Over the five-year period between 2016 and 2021, wages increased on average by 2.7% for both males and females.
  • Between 2020 and 2021, median hourly wages for full-time employment increased by 0.2%, outpaced by part-time wages increasing by 7.1%.

 

Table. Column headings are Category, Median Hourly Wages (ages 15 and over) (2016, 2020, 2021), Annual % Change 2020-2021, and Average Annual % Change 2016-2021. 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, minimum wage.

Wages by Province

Nova Scotia’s year-over-year increase in the median hourly wage ranked 7th among the ten provinces in 2021 at 0.1%. The national average wage growth was 6.3%.

  • New Brunswick demonstrated the highest wage growth in the country by this measure at 6.3%, followed by Prince Edward Island at 3.5% and Newfoundland and Labrador at 3.0%. 
  • Both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have the lowest average median wage rates in the country, at $22.00.
  • The highest rate in the country is Alberta, at $28.77. 

 

Vertical bar chart titled “Median Hourly Wage by Province 2021, 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.

Unionized Wages

Nova Scotia’s median hourly wage for unionized employees ($28.87) was $8.87 higher than for non-unionized employees ($20.00) in 2021. The province’s median hourly wage growth for unionized and non-unionized wages was 6.8% and 4.0%, respectively. 

Prince Edward Island had the highest growth in median hourly wages for unionized employees (8.7%) and New Brunswick had the highest growth in hourly wages for non-unionized employees (5.0%) in 2021 compared to 2020.

Vertical bar chart titled “Median Hourly Wage by Union Status and Province 2021, 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.

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