For years, Quebecers considered themselves “born for a bun”, which condemned them to remain less rich than English Canadians and to satisfy them.
Emancipation led them to get rid of this defeatist attitude, with the hope of one day filling the delay in wealth. Now here after this long journey, we can now say that Quebec households are gaining as much as other Canadians, unheard of for decades.
To be more precise, the salary remuneration of Quebec households reached 99.1 % of that of other Canadians in 2024, while this proportion has long oscillated between 85 % and 90 % until 2015, before going clear since.
There is no doubt that the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, will be delighted, although the reasons are multiple and that the genesis of the phenomenon dates back many years.
To achieve such a conclusion, I combed the statistical Canada data on household income which is used to calculate the gross domestic product (GDP).
In 2024, therefore, household employees in Quebec affected the equivalent of $ 37,300 per inhabitant, on average, which represents 99.1 % of $ 37,650 in Canada.
Please note, it is not the remuneration by employee, but per capita: a household of 4 people (2 children) could therefore earn this remuneration per capita 4 times, on average. You have to see the figure per capita as an indicator for the purpose of the comparison.
The 99.1 % report of 2024 has been a summit since 1981, the most distant year for which Statistics Canada has published data.
The catch -up of Quebec is eloquent in the face of all other Canadians, as well as Ontarians more specifically. The ascent with Ontario started in 1989, and according to the most recent data for this province, 2023, the Quebec/Ontario remuneration ratio now reaches 96.4 %, while it was 77.1 % in 1989. Let the graphics speak.
Information surprises. So I redid the exercise with two other Statistics Canada databases on household income, which has confirmed the net catching up for 10 years1.
Various reasons can explain the impressive phenomenon. The Quebec economy recovered after returning to the 2015 budgetary balance. The vigor of the labor market, twinned at the record activity rate of women thanks to the daycare program, has a lot to do with it. This vigor, in combination with the aging of the population, has created a shortage of labor, with pressure on wages.
It should also be admitted that some other provinces fell during the same period, notably Ontario after the 2007 financial crisis, and Alberta, after the oil crisis of 2014.
Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist of Alberta Central, has well explained the Alberta sub-performance for a decade-and not only because of oil-, a source of dissatisfaction supplying the separatist movement there. Purchasing power has fallen there by 13 % for 10 years2.
Finally, Ontario welcomes a very large number of immigrants, especially those from family reunification (spouses, children and grandparents), much more than in Quebec, which can exert downward pressure on average remuneration.
In any case, Quebecers no longer have to be ashamed of the pan -Canadian comparison in this regard.
That said, despite the ascent, Quebecers keep even less money in their pockets than elsewhere in Canada to pay their current expenses (mortgages, grocery store, etc.).
The database I used ultimately is used to calculate household disposable income, which corresponds to all income after taxes and transfers. However, this disposable income per capita of Quebecers represents 91 % of that of other Canadians in 2024, according to data, after a historic hollow of 83 % in 2015.
The progression of Quebec households has been clear since 2015, such as wage remuneration, but without reaching the level of other Canadians.
Disposable income, should we know, not only includes the remuneration of employees, but also all of the transfers received from governments and businesses. Among these transfers, let us mention employment insurance and social assistance, but especially the retirement services of the private and the public (RRQ, federal pension, etc.), very important. From this sum are subtracted the transfers paid to governments, in particular income tax and property taxes, which gives disposable income.
What explains this difference? As you can expect, Quebecers receive more transfers from governments than elsewhere, but they also pay more taxes.
Note that disposable income is calculated before payment of expenses, and therefore before levy of sales taxes. These sales taxes are higher in Quebec (15 %) than in Ontario (13 %), British Columbia (12 %) or Alberta (5 %).
Despite everything, purchasing power has increased much more in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada for 10-15 years. Specifically, the unable to live in Quebec has believed 3.8 % per year between 2015 and 2024, on average, while annual inflation was 2.6 %.
Elsewhere, annual growth was 2.8 %, a level comparable to inflation (2.7 %).
In short, Quebecers have enriched themselves, while the average of other Canadians stagnated3.
Finally, this portrait explains why the Quebecers’ savings rate increases more than elsewhere in Canada. Savings are measured after removing home -consumption expenses from disposable income.
The savings rate represents 9.2 % of disposable income in Quebec in the first quarter of 2025, against 4.8 % elsewhere in Canada. This gap has been one of the largest in four decades. The graph illustrates the phenomenon, such as the abnormality of data from the pandemic period, which saw the Canadians obtain financial assistance from governments.
This is the portrait of the situation. That said, although Quebecers have joined other Canadians in terms of wage remuneration, their heritage remains lower, including real estate assets. What could be better than savings to fill this difference, isn’t it?
Another element: the situation of Quebecers, like that of Canadians, compares itself well to many developed countries. This is the next catch -up to be done.
1. For the first of the two sources of comparison, Quebec equaled the Canadian average in 2022 and for the second, Quebec is still 10 % below the Canadian average in 2023. The difference is explained in particular by the type of surveys and what they seek to measure. The first deals with the reports of income from the Canada Revenue Agency and compares the income of families made up of the same number of people (for example a couple with two children). The second is the Canadian Income Survey (ECR), which is linked to the Survey on the Active Population (EPA), that which notably measures the unemployment rate by means of a questionnaire with 60,000 households. Note that in these two cases, these are median income, which illustrate the cleaning better than the average.
2. Alberta Central is the association of credit cooperatives in Alberta. To read the analysis of Charles St-Arnaud, see here:
Read the analysis of Charles St-Arnaud (in English)
3. I also made the comparison with the year 2010 rather than with the hollow of 2015. The gain in purchasing power of Quebecers is smaller, but remains much more important than that of other Canadians.
