Workers in Canada’s largest urban centre earn less than those in major US metros
The wages of workers in Toronto is not keeping pace with those in America’s largest metros, according to a new report.
The Fraser Institute says that the city ranks last in ranking of median employment incomes across the 15 largest metropolitan areas in Canada and the United States. The study used comparable 2019 data on wages, salaries, and commissions including self-employment, before taxes and government transfers.
Toronto was the only Canadian metro large enough to be within the top 15 largest metros and had a median employment income of $37,550, more than $2,000 less than the lowest-ranked U.S. metro, Miami ($39,580). Figures are in Canadian dollars.
San Francisco topped the list with a median employment income of $70,315, followed by Washington, DC at $64,056, and Boston at $61,232. Other U.S. metros in the list include New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Phoenix, and Riverside-San Bernadino.
The study also looked at how median employment income grew during the 2010s and found that Toronto ranked 10th out of 15 with a rate of 0.4%.
“Workers in Toronto, our largest urban centre, are generally earning less employment income than people in the largest American metro areas,” said Ben Eisen, Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of ‘Comparing Employment Income in Toronto and Selected American Metropolitan Areas’.
Perhaps this is part of the reason that more than half of Canadians admitted recently that they lie bou how much they earn.
