In 2025, women aged 15 and over in Canada earned an average of 88 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to Statistics Canada. That national figure hides a spread that runs from an 18 percent gap in Alberta to minus 4 percent in Prince Edward Island, where women's average hourly wage was slightly higher than men's. Which province you work in, which sector you land in, and how many hours you are guaranteed move your pay more than almost anything else on your resume.
Key facts
- Women aged 15 and over earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2025 on average hourly wages, up from 82 cents in 1997. For women aged 25 to 54 the figure was 89 cents, up from 81 cents (Statistics Canada).
- Racialized women earned 78 cents and Indigenous women 79 cents for every dollar earned by non-Indigenous, non-racialized men in 2025.
- Provincial average hourly gaps in 2025: Alberta 18 percent, British Columbia 13, Saskatchewan 13, Ontario 12, Manitoba 10, Quebec 10, Newfoundland and Labrador 10, Nova Scotia 6, New Brunswick 5, Prince Edward Island minus 4. Canada overall was 12 percent (Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0417-01).
- Women's labour force participation was 61.6 percent in 2023, up from 45.7 percent in 1976. Among those aged 25 to 54 it was 85.5 percent, against 92.1 percent for men.
- In 2023, 23.8 percent of employed women worked part time, compared with 12.8 percent of employed men.
- Women make up roughly 5 percent of skilled trades workers nationally, 7 percent of Alberta's skilled trades workforce per a 2021 BuildForce survey, and 11 percent of registered Saskatchewan apprentices as of June 30, 2023.
- Ontario employers with 25 or more employees have had to post pay in publicly advertised job ads since January 1, 2026. British Columbia has required it since November 2023.
What participation actually looks like now
The gap sits at the two ends of a career
Women aged 15 and over had a labour force participation rate of 61.6 percent in 2023, up from 45.7 percent in 1976 (Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0327-01, compiled by the Vanier Institute of the Family). Among 15 to 24 year olds the gap has closed: 65.1 percent for women against 64.8 percent for men. In the core working years of 25 to 54, women were at 85.5 percent and men at 92.1 percent, a 6.6 point gap. The widest gap is at 55 and over, at 31.9 percent against 42.3 percent. Career interruptions and re-entry problems cluster at those two ends, which is where most practical hiring and job search effort should go.
Education is not the constraint
By 2022, 41 percent of Canadian-born women in the workforce held a bachelor's degree or higher, against 27 percent of Canadian-born men. Immigrant women who landed as adults were at 59 percent (Statistics Canada, Intersectional Perspective on the Canadian Gender Wage Gap, September 2023). The same study found that immigrant women who landed as adults still faced a 21 percent hourly wage gap against Canadian-born men in 2022, and Indigenous women a 20 percent gap, while the gap for Canadian-born women was 9 percent. Credentials are not what is being priced.
The wage gap by province, with the numbers attached
The 2025 ranking
Using average hourly wages for all employees aged 15 and over, the 2025 provincial gaps were Alberta 18 percent, British Columbia 13, Saskatchewan 13, Ontario 12, Manitoba 10, Quebec 10, Newfoundland and Labrador 10, Nova Scotia 6, New Brunswick 5, and Prince Edward Island minus 4. That comes from Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0417-01, as published by Ontario's Pay Equity Office.
Why Alberta sits at the top
Alberta's 18 percent gap is mostly a job mix story rather than a story about what any one employer pays. The province carries a large share of high-wage employment in energy, construction, and transportation, and women were only about 7 percent of Alberta's skilled trades workforce in a 2021 BuildForce survey. When an aggregate gap compares a nurse to a pipefitter, it is measuring occupational sorting, not two people doing the same job for different money. Provinces with a heavier public sector weighting, including Nova Scotia at 6 percent and New Brunswick at 5 percent, show narrower aggregate gaps for the same structural reason.
The measure changes the answer
Ontario's 2025 gap was 12 percent on average hourly wages and 11 percent on median hourly wages. The Government of British Columbia's own pay transparency page states that women in B.C. earned on average 15 percent less than men, while the Statistics Canada average hourly series puts B.C. at 13 percent. Annual-earnings comparisons produce much larger gaps again, because men work more paid hours on average. A gap quoted with no measure attached is not usable in a salary conversation. Ask which series, which year, and which age range.
What the same credential pays in different places
Nursing: one licence, five different pay bands
The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario published sector wage comparisons in November 2024 using 2023 rates. Hospital registered nurses averaged $37.93 an hour at start and $54.37 at maximum. Public health units averaged $36.73 to $46.86, primary care $35.12 to $42.64, long-term care $32.72 to $48.76, and home care $28.67 to $37.01. That is a gap of more than $9 an hour at entry for the same licence, driven entirely by sector.
The bargained grids are public too. The 2024 arbitration award covering the Ontario Nurses' Association and 208 participating nursing homes set an RN grid effective July 1, 2024 running from $33.99 at start to $42.05 at five years and $51.46 at eight years, with 3 percent across-the-board increases on July 1 in 2024 and 2025. The September 3, 2025 hospital-sector arbitration award, covering more than 60,000 nurses, set 3 percent for 2025 and 2.25 percent for 2026, running to March 31, 2027. If you are weighing a hospital offer against a home care offer, those documents are the benchmark.
Early childhood education
Job Bank postings from spring 2026 show the same spread. A CPE in Longueuil posted $25.15 an hour for 34 hours a week, one in Trois-Rivieres $23.66 for 36 hours, another in Trois-Rivieres $21.23 for 32 hours, and a Montreal centre $19.84 for a 15 hour part-time role. A centre in Bentley, Alberta posted $19.00 to $21.00 an hour for 20 to 40 hours biweekly. In Ontario, the gating credential is RECE standing with the College of Early Childhood Educators, usually alongside current CPR and first aid and a vulnerable sector check. Those three items are cheap to hold current and they are what moves an application from screened out to shortlisted.
Trades, and the programs that actually place people
The named supports here are real and most are free. The Office to Advance Women Apprentices runs offices in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Alberta, offering job matching, resume and interview help, mentorship, a scholarship for women entering Red Seal programs, and a wage subsidy for employers hiring apprentices. The Alberta office was funded by $2.354 million to the Carpenters' Regional Council under the federal Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy Women in Skilled Trades Initiative, covers 39 Red Seal construction trades, and is open to anyone in Alberta aged 16 or over who identifies as a woman. Build Together, run by Canada's Building Trades Unions, has provincial chapters doing mentorship and placement. Women Unlimited operates out of Nova Scotia Community College campuses in Bridgewater, Halifax, Dartmouth, and Sydney. Saskatchewan Polytechnic runs Women in Trades and Technology plus an exploratory course, and the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission runs a rebate and mentorship initiative for 2024 to 2026. The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, with the Office to Advance Women Apprentices, delivers a National Leadership Development Program for Women in the Skilled Trades at no cost to participants.
Employers in these trades cannot solve a 5 percent representation problem by posting to a general board and waiting. That is the specific sourcing gap WomenAtWork.ca for employers is built to close.
Hours: the split that quietly sets lifetime earnings
In 2023, 23.8 percent of employed women worked part time against 12.8 percent of employed men. Some of that is chosen, tied to caregiving, study, or phased retirement. Some of it is involuntary, meaning full-time hours were wanted and not available. Statistics Canada tracks reasons for part-time work as a separate series, and that is the one to use when you are assessing underemployment rather than preference.
Practically, treat hours as a term to negotiate, not a detail to discover later. Ask for guaranteed weekly hours in writing, ask whether the shift pattern is fixed or rotating, and ask whether the part-time rate includes a percentage in lieu of benefits. In Ontario hospital nursing, for example, part-time rates include 14 percent in lieu of fringe benefits as of April 1, 2024, which changes how a part-time and full-time offer compare. If you want full-time work, say so in the application rather than leaving it to inference. Browsing openings and building a profile through WomenAtWork.ca for job seekers puts that preference in front of employers who are filtering for it.
Pay transparency rules you can use right now
Ontario, since January 1, 2026
Under Part III.1 of the Employment Standards Act, employers with 25 or more employees must state expected compensation or a range in every publicly advertised job posting. A posted range cannot span more than $50,000, and the rule does not apply where pay or the top of the range exceeds $200,000 a year. Employers must also disclose whether artificial intelligence is used to screen or select applicants, state whether the posting is for a real vacancy, contact anyone they interviewed within 45 days, and keep posting records for three years. An Ontario posting from a mid-sized employer with no pay figure is now a compliance signal worth noticing.
British Columbia
The Pay Transparency Act became law on May 11, 2023 and has required publicly advertised postings to include expected pay or a pay range since November 2023. Reporting is phased by size: employers with 1,000 or more B.C. employees reported first, 300 or more by November 1, 2025, and 50 or more by November 1, 2026. Those reports are published on employer websites, which means you can read a prospective employer's own gender pay breakdown before an interview.
Federally regulated employers
The federal Pay Equity Act came into force on August 31, 2021. Employers subject to it had to post a final pay equity plan by September 3, 2024, file an annual statement after that, and refresh the plan every five years. Employers with 100 or more staff, and those with 10 to 99 where some staff are unionized, must run a pay equity committee with employee representatives. Quebec has required pay equity audits every five years for employers with 10 or more employees for far longer.
An Indeed survey cited by Human Resources Director Canada found 73 percent of Canadian workers are more likely to apply to a posting that shows the pay range. For employers outside Ontario and B.C., posting a range is still optional and still the cheapest way to raise qualified application volume.
Which employers publish their work
Mediacorp announced Canada's Best Diversity Employers (2026) on February 24, 2026, the nineteenth year of the competition, with detailed reasons for selection published on Eluta.ca and in a Globe and Mail magazine. That write-up is a useful shortlist because it names specifics rather than slogans. Niagara Health runs volunteer inclusion champions embedded in operational roles. The Co-operators Group in Guelph, with 6,595 employees, added family-forming benefits and gender affirmation coverage. York University, with 4,997 employees, released a Black inclusion framework that includes a recruitment process review and a Black staff network. D2L Corporation in Kitchener, with 866 employees, builds inclusion training into onboarding. IGM Financial in Winnipeg made the list for a fourth consecutive year and was named to Canada's Top Family-Friendly Employers for the first time in 2026. Reading the selection notes before an interview gives you concrete questions to ask about parental leave top-up, promotion review, and scheduling.
What WomenAtWork.ca is for
WomenAtWork.ca is a Canadian job board for employers who specifically want to reach women candidates, and for women looking for roles from employers who chose that channel deliberately. For job seekers, that narrows the filtering work and tells you something about intent before you read the job description. For employers, particularly in trades, transportation, and technology where representation sits in the single digits, it is a targeted layer rather than a replacement for volume boards. Most serious searches use more than one channel, and this one works best as the part of the mix aimed at a defined audience.
FAQ
What is the gender wage gap in Canada right now?
Twelve percent nationally in 2025 on average hourly wages for employees aged 15 and over, meaning women earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men. For workers aged 25 to 54 the figure was 89 cents. On median hourly wages the gap is a point or two smaller, and on annual earnings it is substantially larger because men work more paid hours on average.
Which province has the largest gender wage gap?
Alberta, at 18 percent in 2025, followed by British Columbia and Saskatchewan at 13 percent each. Prince Edward Island was at minus 4 percent, meaning women's average hourly wage was slightly above men's. Most of the provincial spread reflects differences in industrial mix rather than differences in what employers pay for the same work.
Do Canadian job postings have to include salary?
In Ontario, yes since January 1, 2026, for employers with 25 or more employees, with a posted range capped at a $50,000 spread and an exemption above $200,000. In British Columbia, yes since November 2023. Other provinces have no general posting requirement, so a missing range there is a negotiating condition rather than a violation.
Which industries employ the most women in Canada?
Health care and social assistance is the largest, followed by educational services, retail trade, and public administration. The concentration is steep: Alberta's provincial industry profile, using Labour Force Survey data, put women at 83.3 percent of health care and social assistance employment in that province in 2015. Statistics Canada publishes current employment by industry and gender monthly in the Labour Force Survey industry tables.
Why do more women work part time?
In 2023, 23.8 percent of employed women worked part time against 12.8 percent of men. Caregiving, study, and phased retirement account for much of the voluntary share. Involuntary part-time work, where full-time hours are wanted and unavailable, is tracked as its own series by Statistics Canada and is the better signal of underemployment.
What is the fastest way into a skilled trade for a woman in Canada?
Contact the Office to Advance Women Apprentices if you are in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, or Alberta, since it does job matching and offers a scholarship for Red Seal programs and a wage subsidy that makes you cheaper for an employer to take on. In Nova Scotia, Women Unlimited runs through four NSCC campuses. In Saskatchewan, look at Saskatchewan Polytechnic's Women in Trades and Technology and the provincial rebate initiative running to 2026.
Where to go from here
National averages are context. Pay is set by province, sector, employer, and guaranteed hours, and every one of those is checkable before you apply or post. Whether you are hiring or job hunting, WomenAtWork.ca serves both sides of the market. Employers can review pricing and post a role at https://womenatwork.ca/employers. Job seekers can browse openings and create a profile at https://womenatwork.ca/job-seekers.