Survey: Canadian salary increases coming for 2014
A new survey of employers by the Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, concludes that Canadian paycheques are going to get bigger next year. According to the study, workers should see their paycheques increase by an average of 2.6% in 2014.
The province expected to see the biggest pay boost in Newfoundland and Labrador at 4%. Saskatchewan at 3.4% and Alberta at 3.2% round out the top three provinces for rising salary levels. This is largely based on the economic strengths of their natural resource industries and the ongoing labour shortage in the West.
The other provinces are all predicted to receive pay increases from 2.1%-2.6%, slightly below or right at the national average which is propped up by the resource-rich areas.
The sectors with the lowest pay-increase projections are Leisure/Hospitality (at 2.0%), Retail, Consumer Durables and Forestry & Paper (all at 2.1%). Overall, at only 2.3%, the public sector is forecasting lower wage increases than is the industrial and financial private sector which is forecasting 2.7% salary growth.
At a national average of 2.6%, Canadian pay increases fall just short of those expected in the U.K. (2.9%) and the U.S. (2.8%). Globally, workers in the India (10.8%), China (9%), and Russia (8%) are expected to be the biggest winners.
The average Canadian salary is roughly $47,200 or just over $900 a week. Earlier this year, Statistics Canada predicted an average of 2.8% increases for Canadian wages in 2013, with Saskatchewan seeing the largest growth.
The Hays Group survey results are based on responses from over 500 employers from both the private and public sectors conducted in June and July of this year.
