Average Alberta worker made $40.60 an hour in 2019

[driveway]

Source

While researching data for my recent story on labour productivity in Lethbridge, I came across a dataset regarding wages in Alberta. I found some of it interesting and thought I’d share some of it with you.

First, did you know that the average compensation in Alberta is $40.60?

That’s nearly 3 times the minimum wage. And while that does seem to be a good thing, let’s remember that 1 in 8 Albertans made minimum wage or less as of last year. And 1 in 7 made $16/hour or less.

Source dataset

In 2015, average compensation in Alberta was $41.43 and $41.24 the year before. It dropped to $38.83 in 2016, following the recession, and has yet to fully recover. Given the economic fallout of the oil price crash and the pandemic, there’s a pretty good chance it won’t fully recover this year either.
...

Last year, Alberta’s average compensation per hour was the highest of all the Canadian provinces.



The 2015–2016 recession really took a chunk out of the wages in Alberta, while the other provinces came out relatively unscathed. They either all appear to have been unaffected by the recession or they full recovered from it.

This has allowed the next highest compensated provinces—Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Québec—to start to close the gap with Alberta.

How close did you come to the Province average last year?

[nik-]

Median please.

[1qqaaz]

It looks like Ontario, BC, and Newfoundland and Labrador are the next highest.
Not Quebec and Saskatchewan.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm watching you Driveway, if that's really who you are, and not some nebulous on line spy of the CRA.



I ain't giving you nothing.

[PsYcNeT]

If you want to know why no one else in Canada takes Albertans seriously when bitching about how lousy of a hand they've been dealt, it's #### like this.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

If you want to know why no one else in Canada takes Albertans seriously when bitching about how lousy of a hand they've been dealt, it's #### like this.

Albertans don't make too much, everyone else makes too little

[tvp2003]

The people that are still employed might be making on average $40.60.

But it doesn't take into account people that have lost their job entirely and/or left the Province as a result.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

The people that are still employed might be making on average $40.60.

But it doesn't take into account people that have lost their job entirely and/or left the Province as a result.

Why would this matter to the average wage? They no longer count into the census for Albertan workers - in fact they may have found work in other provinces.

[puckedoff]

I was happy with my job, until I read this post.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Albertans don't make too much, everyone else makes too little

Exactly. It’s the crab bucket mentality towards Alberta that pisses me off.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Albertans don't make too much, everyone else makes too little

I'd agree with this. It's not really Alberta's fault that B.C. has lower wages and a higher cost of living. On the other hand, it's definitely hard for the average person in B.C. to look at the average person in Alberta and really sympathize with the "Canada is screwing Alberta over" narrative that comes out of the province.

That said, the unemployment numbers for Alberta were still higher than the national average prior to COVID, so there is that.

It'd be nice if we, as a country, quit with the petty inter-provincial squabbling and were more empathetic towards each others' regional problems but good luck with that.

[OMG!WTF!]

The most I ever made was like $22 an hour as an esl teacher. A bad bad esl teacher. But I never made no nevermind about that no how.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

The people that are still employed might be making on average $40.60.

But it doesn't take into account people that have lost their job entirely and/or left the Province as a result.

Right, that's why we have unemployment numbers.

The ~93% of Albertans who are eligible to work are making more on average than the ~95% of Ontarians who are eligible to work (as of a year ago). By a bunch.

The vast, vast, vast majority of Albertans still have jobs, a lot of those people are making a boatload of coin.

People who work in pipeline transportation, for example, are making an average of $88 an hour. People who work in extraction make an average of about the same.

When people talk about Albertans suffering, or Albertans losing jobs, they seem to talk a lot about people making well over 100k per year on average. It does tend to ring a little hollow, especially when people also complain about raising minimum wage.

I still think losing your job is horrible, but you hear a lot about there being "no jobs" or whatever. There are plenty of jobs, they're just too low paying for many people working in rich industries to bother with.

I'm not saying any of this is bad or that compensation should change. We're a province comprised of some extremely wealthy people, and should at least recognize and celebrate that while talking about the very serious issues we face.

[tvp2003]

^^^ I guess my question is how you account for the many (?) people that have lost high paying energy sector jobs and left the province as a result. It wouldn't necessarily be reflected in unemployment because a lot of those people aren't living in Alberta anymore.

As for average wage, you'd think it would have gone up after 2015 with minimum wage increasing. Instead it went down which means a lot of high paying jobs must have been lost or reduced in wage.

Not suggesting that Alberta should or should not be seen as suffering as a result, just trying to better understand the data driving these kinds of statistics...

[Locke]

[Robbob]

So roughly 84k. That seems high.

Nvm thinking median.

[CaptainCrunch]

I never trust things like average wage.



There are some jobs while not necessarily unique are more prevalent in Alberta and might not be done in other provinces.


I'd like to see more of a breakdown of an average based on common jobs.
It would also be interesting to compare private and public sector total compensation.


But just throwing out one number to cover all makes little to no sense for me.

[Jason14h]

Sounds like we need to reduce the public sectors salaries to bring us in line with other provinces ???

That’s all I got out of this

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Robbob

So roughly 84k. That seems high.

Nvm thinking median.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I never trust things like average wage.

There are some jobs while not necessarily unique are more prevalent in Alberta and might not be done in other provinces.

I'd like to see more of a breakdown of an average based on common jobs.
It would also be interesting to compare private and public sector total compensation.

But just throwing out one number to cover all makes little to no sense for me.

I blame it on the fact that we have 2 hockey teams. Ontario can also use that excuse. Dragging up the average!