The Gender Pay Gap in Canada (2025 Data)
Women in Canada earned 88.1 cents for every dollar men earned in average hourly wages in 2025, a gap of 11.9%. But that is only part of the story: when measured by average weekly wages instead of hourly rate, the gap widens to 20.4%, since women work fewer average hours per week than men.
| Metric | Men | Women | Ratio | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average hourly wage | $38.64 | $34.04 | 88.1% | 11.9% |
| Average weekly wage | $1,476 | $1,175 | 79.6% | 20.4% |
Source: Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0064, 2025 annual average, both full- and part-time employees, all industries, age 15+.
That roughly 8.5 percentage point difference between the hourly gap (11.9%) and the weekly gap (20.4%) is the clearest single number for understanding what drives the overall pay gap: about 60% of it comes from the wage rate itself, and about 40% comes from women working fewer average hours, largely tied to higher rates of part-time work.
You may see a wider figure, often around 15-20%, cited elsewhere on this site and across Canadian media. That figure typically comes from comparing average annual salary or earnings (Census/tax-filer data), which combines both the hourly wage gap and the hours-worked gap into a single number, plus differences in labour force participation. It measures a related but different question than the hourly wage comparison above. See our average salary in Canada guide for the annual earnings comparison.
Gender Pay Gap by Industry
The gap varies enormously by industry, from under 5% in some sectors to nearly 20% in others.
| Industry | Men (avg hourly) | Women (avg hourly) | Gender Pay Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing | $49.21 | $39.74 | 19.2% |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | $52.92 | $42.93 | 18.9% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | $30.05 | $24.88 | 17.2% |
| Information, culture and recreation | $36.69 | $31.38 | 14.5% |
| Other services (except public administration) | $33.76 | $29.45 | 12.8% |
| Manufacturing | $36.45 | $31.94 | 12.4% |
| Educational services | $45.4 | $40.93 | 9.8% |
| Construction | $38.4 | $34.72 | 9.6% |
| Health care and social assistance | $36.99 | $34.31 | 7.2% |
| Public administration | $48.14 | $44.68 | 7.2% |
| Agriculture | $26.41 | $24.61 | 6.8% |
| Forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, oil and gas | $51.97 | $48.51 | 6.7% |
| Transportation and warehousing | $34.79 | $32.59 | 6.3% |
| Utilities | $56.76 | $53.25 | 6.2% |
| Accommodation and food services | $21.61 | $20.51 | 5.1% |
| Business, building and other support services | $29.13 | $27.93 | 4.1% |
Source: Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0064, 2025 annual average hourly wage by gender and industry.
The widest gaps are concentrated in high-paying, seniority-driven fields. Finance, insurance and real estate (19.2%) and professional, scientific and technical services (18.9%) have the largest gender pay gaps of any major industry, despite both being well-compensated overall. This pattern is common internationally: industries with high variance in pay by seniority and performance (bonuses, commissions, partnership tracks) tend to show wider gender gaps than industries with flatter, more standardized pay scales.
The narrowest gaps are in unionized and service-heavy sectors. Business and support services (4.1%), accommodation and food services (5.1%), and utilities (6.2%) show the smallest gaps. Utilities’ narrow gap is notable given it is also the highest-paying industry overall, suggesting that where union-negotiated wage scales apply uniformly, the gap compresses regardless of how high the pay itself is.
Gender Pay Gap by Province
| Province | Men (avg hourly) | Women (avg hourly) | Gender Pay Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | $40.87 | $33.46 | 18.1% |
| British Columbia | $40.47 | $35.28 | 12.8% |
| Saskatchewan | $35.6 | $31.07 | 12.7% |
| Ontario | $39.98 | $35.35 | 11.6% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | $35.24 | $31.59 | 10.4% |
| Quebec | $36.81 | $33.17 | 9.9% |
| Manitoba | $33.16 | $29.96 | 9.7% |
| Nova Scotia | $33.46 | $31.3 | 6.5% |
| New Brunswick | $32.06 | $30.48 | 4.9% |
| Prince Edward Island | $29.57 | $30.63 | -3.6% |
Source: Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0064, 2025 annual average hourly wage, all industries.
Prince Edward Island is the only province where the gap runs in the opposite direction women’s average hourly wage was about 3.6% higher than men’s in 2025. This is a genuine finding in the data, though PEI’s small labour force means single-year figures can shift more than in larger provinces, so it is worth treating as a snapshot rather than a permanent structural feature.
Ontario (11.6%) sits close to the national average (11.9%), unsurprising given it is the largest single contributor to the national figure. Atlantic provinces other than PEI (New Brunswick 4.9%, Nova Scotia 6.5%) show consistently narrower gaps than the national average, while the resource-heavy Prairie provinces trend closer to or above it.
What actually explains the gap
Economists generally break the gender pay gap into three broad components:
- Occupational and industry sorting — women are overrepresented in lower-paying fields (education, healthcare support, retail) and underrepresented in the highest-paying ones (skilled trades, oil and gas, senior finance roles)
- Hours and continuity of work — more part-time work and more career interruptions (parental leave, caregiving) reduce both hours worked and years of accumulated seniority
- An unexplained residual — even after statistically controlling for occupation, industry, hours, education, and experience, most academic studies still find a gap of roughly 5-10%, which is generally attributed to some mix of negotiation differences, bias in hiring and promotion, and factors not captured by available data
None of these three components fully explains the gap on its own, and all three are supported by a substantial body of Canadian and international labour economics research.
Related reading
- Average Salary in Canada — national salary benchmarks by province, age, and education
- Highest Paying Industries in Canada — full industry wage ranking
- Income Percentile Calculator — see where a specific income ranks
- Salaries in Canada by Profession — profession-specific salary guides
Data source: Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0064, “Employee wages by industry, annual,” 2025, both full- and part-time employees, age 15 and over. Ratios are calculated by dividing women’s average wage by men’s average wage for each category.