Salary Confessions: 14 Canadians Get Candid About Their Wages

We all do it: someone tells you their line of work, and you instantly think, Gosh, I wonder what that job pays? Often there’s a more anxious question lurking behind it, which is: Am I keeping up? That question has gained new urgency as growth in tech, energy, health care, and beyond has swelled some workers’ pay, while others have seen wages stagnate. We asked 14 Canadians to divulge how they’re faring, and to reveal their annual salaries.

Doctor, medical specialist 

Montreal 

$800,000 • Up to $200,000 extra for paid appearances

I make a great living, but I work f*cking hard. My specialty requires that I be on call nights and weekends, and that often means being awake for the majority of the night. It’s stressful. Doctors often quit because the job is just incompatible with a normal life, but I’ve done it for three decades now. People often say my workload seems impossible. But Canadian medicine is mostly fee-for-service, so I’m paid by visit — and a follow-up patient only pays me $29. So it’s a volume game. I deserve 10 times what I make. I know what American doctors get paid for this same job.

Snow scientist

Canmore, Alta.

$78,000

The research lab here operates about 30 weather stations that collect information on solar radiation bouncing off the snow. We do this in part to predict how much water is going to come down from the mountains and downriver. We quite literally hike up the mountain to check the stations and to collect snow samples; in the wintertime, we use backcountry skis.

It’s my first job. I can go for dinner a couple times a month and still have a bit left over to invest. If I were to have a family one day, it would not be enough, but as a single person living with a roommate, I do OK.

Scavenger and garbage picker

Montreal

~$50,000

I’ve become a master of finding stuff on the curb and knowing the resale value. I’m always after precious metals, like gold or silver, but if I’m really lucky, I’ll find jewellery that someone has undervalued. I used to sell on eBay more, but now with the tariffs, I mostly use Mobile Auction House, and I have yard sales for random, fun stuff that I enjoy selling. I have a degree in sociology. For a while I considered trying for a master’s, but I was sick of academia. So I started finding things on curbs. At first — this was about 15 years ago — I didn’t make much money, but I only paid, like, $300 a month in rent. Now I’m more professional and I have some savings, which is nice. 

Lawyer at a legal-tech firm

Markham, Ont.

$190,000

Plus equity

My role isn’t the traditional in-house counsel role you’d see at a bank or a large corporation — our customers are law firms, and they want a lawyer who can speak their language. At a traditional law firm, compensation is completely fixed for the first six years — for instance, everybody in your year starts at $135,000 and then climbs by either $20,000 or $25,000 per year. After that, it’s negotiated up to a limit. At my current company, everything is up for negotiation.

Even though I’m conscious of lifestyle creep, it feels like every time I get a raise, I’m still making the same amount of money. My life doesn’t feel much different in 2026 making $190,000 than it did in 2024 making $135,000. The rising cost of living is part of it. As soon as you start to get ahead, suddenly a war breaks out and now gas costs nearly double what it did six months ago.

Electrician

Kelowna, B.C.

$100,000

Up to $10,000 in OT

Back when I was an apprentice, about five years ago, minimum wage was $14.75 an hour, and sometimes I could only afford grocery-store rice and frozen veggies for lunch. Over the past two or three years, though, I’ve been able to put away over $50,000. If I don’t have any unexpected expenses, I can pretty much put one of my two monthly paycheques straight into savings or investments.

Therapeutic clown and circus artist 

Toronto

$40,000

On Mondays and Thursdays, I teach aerial silks, a type of circus art. Private lessons are $80 an hour, and a group class can be $150 an hour. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are therapeutic-clowning days at a hospital and a recovery centre. That’s about $50 an hour. Sometimes on Fridays and Saturdays, I’ll have a clowning shift at a facility for people with complex needs. It’s not big bucks, but we get to help clients feel dignified and empowered.

Helicopter mechanic

Vernon, B.C.

$85,000 • Up to $45,000 in overtime

My base salary is $85,000, but my pay is heavily dependent on how much the helicopter flies in a shift. It’s called “flight pay,” and the amount varies based on what machine you’re working on. The bigger the machine, the bigger the pay. With that, I make around $110,000 to $130,000. But I still feel heavily under-compensated, since one mistake could cost the lives of multiple pilots. A few times, I’ve been unable to sleep because of the stress. Once I even went to the hangar at 2 a.m. — a 45-minute drive each way — just to make sure I did a job correctly. 

Where I live in B.C. is fairly expensive, but with my wage and my partner’s, we’re comfortable. Not thriving but comfortable. We take vacations, and we’re planning to buy a house soon. But my main goal in life is to own a small bush plane; the one I want costs about US$500,000.

Local news reporter

St. John’s, Nfld.

$70,000

Up to $3,000 in overtime

I’ve been doing this for two years. Sometimes I’m reading the news on air, sometimes I’m producing radio or TV segments, sometimes I’m reporting. It’s exciting, and it’s a great living. Or maybe not great, but it’s extremely doable here. I was looking to buy a home recently, but the housing market is freaking nuts. I could afford the list prices, but everything is going for $25,000, $50,000, or $100,000 over asking. So I’m priced out right now.

Exterminator

Winnipeg

$150,000

Business owner

I’m 65. My income is about $150,000, and I also have a pension. If I can double my income in the next five to seven years, I plan to sell my company, pay off my mortgage, and fully retire. I started my own pest-control business during COVID-19 because I wanted to apply my academic experience to the real world. I have a PhD in medical entomology, I did field studies on mosquito-borne diseases in the Middle East for six years, and then I worked for the Public Health Agency of Canada for about 20 years. Wasps are the hardest insects I deal with. They can build nests anywhere, they’re not always easy to access, and, of course, they have a defence mechanism.

Oil-patch supervisor

Strathmore, Alta.

~$200,000

Business owner

I supervise oil-and-gas-drilling operations; it takes me to both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. I think I can hit all my financial goals. I already have my own incorporated business, I’ve got a great truck, I’ve got a house — all that fun stuff. I guess I’d want to start a family in the future. I’m only 25 now, and I want to retire by the time I’m 50, so I’m well on my way.

Software engineer

Montreal

$475,000 • $125,000 in equity

I’ve been a software engineer for about 15 years. I was on the management track for a few years, but now I write code for most of the day and solve product problems. I think I’m more than fairly compensated; I feel very lucky. My goal is financial security; I want to pay off my mortgage and retire early if I decide to, and I want to have the means to help our children transition into adulthood. I’m fortunate that, if I keep saving at the same rate, that’ll be possible within the next five to 10 years.

Home organizer

Saskatoon

$70,000

Business owner

I’m 46, and I work about 30 hours a week. I’d like to semi-retire in 10 years. My husband and I are in good financial standing, and we have no debt. I don’t get paid a huge salary, but I’m lucky to do something I absolutely love.

Our clients are usually young families who need to declutter or seniors who are downsizing; our hourly rate is $65 per person. Some of the seniors we work with have lived in their homes for 50 years. Those are the clients that I really get to know, because we’re digging through their lives. I spent six months helping one woman downsize. She passed away a few years later. When I read her obituary, I knew everything that was in there because I’d heard all her stories.

Primary-school teacher

Waterloo, Ont.

$119,000

Sometimes I feel like I get paid a lot, but more often I think, “No, I don’t get paid enough.” If you judge a society by how well it treats its most vulnerable, schools are the canary in the coal mine. And right now, there’s a lack of support in elementary schools, especially for kids with behavioural issues.

Woodworker

Toronto

~$20,000

Business owner

Our studio offers woodworking and crafts classes. Sometimes we pull in $6,000 a month after expenses, other times as much as $12,000. But I only pay myself $1,500 because I reinvest as much money as I can back into the business. Some of our customers are concerned about AI making their jobs redundant. Others are not finding much fulfillment in their jobs, and they want to make objects with their hands. So I’ve seen a surge of different people becoming semi-professional woodworkers.

Written By

Jenna Benchetrit

Jenna Benchetrit is the senior business & markets reporter at TLDR, Wealthsimple Media's flagship financial newsletter. She was formerly a senior business writer at CBC News, where she covered economics and consumer issues for a Canadian audience.