Only 2 Canadian cities rank in top half of 141 metropolitan cities in Canada and the US on employment income

Comparing Median Employment Income in Large Canadian and American Metropolitan Areas

Summary

• Out of the 14 Canadian CMAs included in the study, only two are in the top half of the overall rankings, and their placement is only slightly above the midpoint. Meanwhile, the bottom 10 percent of the league table is well represented by Canadian metros. This suggests that Canadian metropolitan areas, in general, lag behind their American counterparts in median employment income.
• Canada’s largest cities, including Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, which collectively represent a significant portion of the country’s population, sit at the lower end of the rankings. This suggests that even within Canada, the largest cities do not perform particularly well in median employment income. Most of the top performing metro areas are large US population centers.
• The sectoral focus of high-performing US metros is more varied than Canada’s. The top-performing American metropolitan areas have considerable economic diversity and are associated with various industries such as technology, finance, and public administration. In Canada, with the exception of the national capital where public administration is a large industry, the highest performing cities are generally found in natural resource intensive regions.