Alberta advantage disappears as UCP wage suppression policies lead to slowest wage growth in Canada

EDMONTON – The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and Canada’s leading progressive economist, Dr. Jim Stanford, released a devastating new report, entitled “The Alberta Wage Disadvantage: Evidence on Alberta’s Continuing Suppression of Wages and Salaries”. The report shows that average wages in Alberta fell behind Quebec in 2024 after falling behind BC in 2023. This represents a shocking decline in Alberta wages, which were 17% higher than the Canadian average in 2013, but were only 1.7% higher in 2024.

“Once a promising place for workers to find jobs, earn decent wages, and support their families, Alberta has more recently demonstrated among the weakest labour markets in Canada,” reads the report. “Unemployment is relatively high, wage growth has been far below other provinces, and yet the cost of living is among the highest in Canada.”

The report highlights disturbing statistics, including the following:

• Alberta once had the highest wages in Canada, 17% higher than the national average. That has shrunk to just 1.7% – and that “advantage” is more than offset by Alberta’s higher cost of living.
• Since 2019, when the UCP government came to power, real hourly wages in Alberta have fallen by a cumulative total of 4.5%, by far the worst of any province.
• The decline in real wages has been experienced in almost every sector, even the highly profitable petroleum and mining sector.
• The combination of weak wage growth and high inflation means that real wages performed worse in Alberta than any other province.
• Average hourly wages in Alberta grew 2.2% in 2024, the third slowest of any province, and barely half the national average (3.8%).
• Alberta experienced the highest inflation of any province in 2024: 2.9%, significantly higher than the national average (2.2%).
• For employees paid by the hour, real wages fell another 0.8% in 2024 – adding to a decade-long decline in real wages (dating back to 2013) that has cut living standards in Alberta by over 10%.

“The UCP has killed the Alberta wage advantage,” says AFL president Gil McGowan. “UCP wage-suppression policies include freezing the minimum wage for over 6 years, making it easier for employers to avoid paying overtime, making it harder for workers to join unions, and secret government bargaining mandates to keep wage increases for hundreds of thousands of public sector workers well-below inflation. The UCP’s low-wage strategy is hurting us all, and it needs to stop. Alberta needs workers and workers need a raise that keeps up with inflation.”

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Report: The Alberta Wage Disadvantage: Evidence on Alberta’s Continuing Suppression of Wages and Salaries

MEDIA CONTACT:
Ian Hussey
Director of Research and Political Action, AFL
Email: ihussey@afl.org

BACKGROUND

About the Author

Jim Stanford is an Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work. Originating from Calgary, he is also the Harold Innis Industry Professor in Economics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. Jim received his Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York. He also holds a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Calgary.