While the average Canadian hourly wage rose 5.6 per cent in the past year, the gap between higher- and lower-paid workers is growing thanks to a disproportionate number of higher paid workers getting pay raises, according to Statistics Canada.
In October, among employees who had been with their employer for at least one year, 59 per cent had received a raise in the past year, according to the nation's number cruncher.
Of those who made at least $40 per hour, 64.3 per cent had a pay raise. Of those who made $20 per hour, or less, only 50.1 per cent had received a wage, Statistics Canada said this morning.
Wage inflation has been higher than five per cent in each of the past five months, as of October, with the average wage now $31.94, according to Statistics Canada. That is below the 6.9 per cent inflation rate that Canada endured in September.
Men continued to make more money on average than did women. Men's average wage was $33.97 per hour, while women on average made $29.82 per hour.
While unionized workers on average make more money than non-unionized counterparts ($34.61 versus $30.72), they were slightly less likely to have received a pay raise in the past year, according to Statistics Canada.
Among employees covered by collective agreements and who had been with their employers for at least a year, 56.8 per cent have received raises in the past year. That compares with approximately 60.1 per cent of non-unionized workers who received wages.
The sectors where workers were least likely to receive wages included agriculture (47.2 per cent) and food services (49.7 per cent.) Those sectors tended to have workers who made below average wages.
The sectors where workers were most likely to have recieved raises included professional, scientific and technical services (68.4 per cent), finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (68.2 per cent) and manufacturing (67.7 per cent).
Changing jobs is one way workers are climbing pay scales.
Only 0.6 per cent of Canadian workers changed jobs between September and October, according to Statistics Canada. Of those who did, 59.8 per cent secured positions at companies that paid them more money than their previous employers. That percentage is significantly more than the average of 50.5 per cent of workers who jumped to new jobs with higher pay in the 2017 through 2019 time period.
In addition to pay increases, another way workers can get paid more is to work more. The sectors where workers were most likely to have voluntarily worked extra hours, or overtime, were utilities (23.2 per cent), natural resources (17.6 per cent), manufacturing (16.6 per cent), transportation and warehousing (14.6 per cent), construction (14.1 per cent) and health care and social assistance (14 per cent.)
