Commentary
There’s a growing consensus among economists that the federal government and several provincial governments over the past decade have not enacted enough policies that encourage economic growth. Consequently, Canadians are getting poorer relative to residents of other countries, including the United States. In particular, their ability to purchase essential goods and services such as housing and food—in other words, their standard of living—is declining relative to our neighbours to the south.
In fact, according to our new study, among the 10 provinces and 50 U.S. states, median employment earnings—that is, wages and salaries—in 2022 (the latest year of available data) were lowest in the four Atlantic provinces, followed by Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. So, the median employment earnings of workers were lower in every Canadian province than in every U.S. state….