The average British Columbian had an overall pay increase of just under $30 per week in the 12 months leading to June, Statistics Canada announced August 28.
The average weekly earnings in B.C. was $897 in June. This represents an increase of 3.4% compared with a year ago, which is slightly above the national average growth of 3.3%. However, the average wage across the country - $940 – is about 4.8% higher than in this province.
Albertans continue to out-earn British Columbians, and the gap has increased even further. The average weekly earnings in Alberta grew by 5.0% year-over-year to $1,156. This means that on average, workers in Alberta earned $259 per week, or 29%, more than those in B.C.
Employees in Prince Edward Island earned the least in June, with $772 per week.
Nationally, payroll earnings grew partly as a result of the changes of composition of employment by industry, as well as growth in the number of hours worked per week.
Workers in the utilities sector had the highest average weekly earnings at $2,115 per week on average. This was followed by employees in construction ($1,798) and management of companies and enterprises ($1,328).
B.C. saw a 0.2% wage growth compared with May, which was lower than the Canadian average of 0.6%.
All figures do not include earnings from farming.
