Average Annual Percentage Wage Adjustments by Year

Major collective bargaining settlements reached in 2008 provided base-rate wage adjustments averaging 3.3% annually over the contract term, the same as in 2007, and an increase from 2.5% in 2006. There were 311 major settlements in 2008, with a coverage of 628,460 employees. The rate of inflation in 2008 was lower than the increase in wage adjustments: in 2007 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index rose by 2.2% and 2.3% respectively, while adjustments averaged 3.3%.

Wage adjustments from the 2008 settlements were higher than the rate in the contracts they replaced. When the parties to these settlements previously negotiated, the resulting wage adjustments averaged 2.7%, compared to the 3.3% in their 2008 settlements.

Contract durations in these 2008 settlements averaged 41.0 months, up from the average of 38.3 months in the contracts they replaced, and above the average of 37.0 months for settlements reached in 2007. However, the 2008 figure is lower than the record-setting number of 47.1 months in 2005.

The public sector average of 3.5% resulted from 220 agreements with a coverage of 440,900 employees (70.2% of all employees in this year's settlements); federal administration agreements provided average wage adjustments of 2.5%; provincial administration wage adjustments were fractionally higher at 2.6%; and local administration adjustments averaged 2.8%; in the education, health, and social services sector, wage adjustments averaged 3.9%.

In the private sector, the 2008 average wage adjustment of 2.7% resulted from 91 settlements with a coverage of 187,560 employees and marked a decrease from 3.2% in 2007, but it was still higher than the 2.2% adjustment recorded in 2006. The private sector accounted for only 29.8% of the total employee coverage and had less of an impact than the public sector on the Canadian aggregate average in the employee weighted wage series.

On a jurisdiction basis, wage adjustments ranged from a low of 2.4% in Quebec, to a high of 5.1% in Saskatchewan where the largest increase was recorded in the education, health, and social services sector at 5.9%. The second largest average increase was in Newfoundland at 5.0%; Alberta ranked third at 4.8%. The largest concentration of agreements (43.4%) and employees (40%) was in Ontario where wage adjustments averaged 2.6%. In the federal jurisdiction, wage adjustments averaged 2.9%.

On an industry basis, wage adjustments ranged from a low of 1.6% in manufacturing, to a high of 5.4% in the construction sector. In Ontario, wage settlements in the manufacturing sector averaged 1.0% down from 2.8% the previous year. The largest concentration of agreements and employees was in the education, health, and social services sector where wage adjustments averaged 3.9%.

Only 7.4% of the major agreements settled in 2008 had a COLA (cost-of-living-agreement) provision, compared to 12.2% the previous year; 15.8%, 5 years ago; and 31.8% in 1990. In 2008, 21 of the agreements with a COLA clause were in the private sector and only 2 in the public sector. The majority of the COLA clauses were in manufacturing-sector agreements.

Sectors

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Public Sector	2.3	2.6	3.4	3.5
Private Sector	2.4	2.2	3.2	2.7

All Industries/Jurisdictions

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Average Annual Adjustment	2.3	2.5	3.3	3.3
Non-COLA	2.3	2.5	3.3	3.4
COLA	2.5	2.7	3.4	2.2
First-Year Adjustment	2.1	2.4	3.8	3.6
Non-COLA	2.1	2.4	3.9	3.8
COLA	2.6	2.7	3.5	1.9

Industries

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Primary Industries	3.1	2.8	4.7	4.3
Utilities	2.6	2.3	3.8	2.2
Construction	2.5	3.6	3.3	5.4
Manufacturing	2.4	2.4	2.5	1.6
Wholesale and Retail Trade	2.0	1.2	2.4	2.9
Transportation	2.9	2.1	2.7	3.0
Information and Culture	2.4	2.5	3.0	2.0
Finance and Professional Services	2.3	2.5	3.5	2.9
Education, Health, and Social Services	2.1	2.6	3.5	3.9
Entertainment and Hospitality	1.9	2.9	3.3	1.9
Public Administration	2.5	2.8	3.5	2.8

Jurisdictions

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Newfoundland and Labrador	2.0	1.7	1.6	5.0
Prince Edward Island	2.5	2.7	2.8	3.0
Nova Scotia	3.3	3.2	3.0	3.8
New Brunswick	3.1	3.0	2.5	3.7
Quebec	1.6	2.0	3.2	2.4
Ontario	2.7	2.5	3.0	2.6
Manitoba	2.9	2.6	3.0	3.4
Saskatchewan	2.0	2.1	4.1	5.1
Alberta	3.0	3.4	4.9	4.8
British Columbia	0.5	2.5	3.0	2.7
Territories	3.0	3.1	3.0	4.4
Multiprovince	4.9	3.8	4.0	-
Federal Jurisdiction	2.6	2.3	2.9	2.9

Note: Data for 2008 cover the months of January through December.

Monthly Tables

Quarterly Tables

Major settlements are those involving bargaining units of 500 or more employees.

For additional information, please view the Technical Notes (PDF format, 200kb).

Source: Strategic Policy, Analysis, and Workplace Information Directorate, Labour Program, HRSDC.

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