Annual Salary Calculation Update

The Economic and Social Development Canada Job Bank updates its wage information for occupations every year. Most jobs list pay as hourly wages, but some—especially those with irregular hours or no hourly data—list annual salaries instead. For each job, the Job Bank shows the low, median and high wage or salary.

To compare wages across all jobs, the hourly wages are converted into yearly salaries. This is only done for median wages. This year, the conversion method has changed. The old method assumed everyone worked 40 hours a week. Now, to make the numbers more accurate, data on how many hours people in each job usually work is used. This information comes from the “usual hours worked per week at main job” variable in Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey.

The calculation under the old methodology was median hourly wage x 40 (hours in week) x 52.14 (weeks in a year).

The updated median employment income calculation

The calculation under the new methodology is median hourly wage x usual hours worked (in a week) x 52.14 (weeks in a year).

To make the numbers more accurate, the labour market team now uses data on how many hours people in each job usually work. This information comes from the “usual hours worked per week at main job” variable in Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey.

WorkBC.ca has over 500 Career Profiles that include details about various jobs. You can find wage information in the Annual Earnings section of each Career Profile.