Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecasts - MiHR

Compensation, Wages and Hours Worked
Compensation, wages and hours worked are indicators of labour force strength and labour-supply preferences.
Sectors offering higher wages for fewer hours worked tend to be attractive employment options.
Significant variations exist between regions with respect to total compensation. The data displayed in Figure 6 shows
total compensation (wages and salaries, overtime, bonuses, and benefits) in mining as an hourly rate. Workers in
the northern areas of Canada are compensated above the national average, perhaps for extreme conditions, and
compensation in Atlantic Canada is approximately 80 per cent of the national average.
Further, Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey provides monthly and annual statistics on wages and hours worked.
Over the past 25 years in Canada, nominal wage increases have averaged 3.5 per cent annually, while real wages
increased an average of 0.9 per cent. In contrast, over this period, workers in the mining industry have seen their
real wages rise by approximately 20 per cent.
CostMine, in their annual report, Canadian Mine Salary Wages and Benefits, provide benchmark average hourly wages
for selected job titles by region, commodity, and unionization. The benchmarks by commodity are displayed in Figure 7.
Overall, Diamond and Industrial Mineral mining companies pay higher wages than Metal mining companies. This may
be, in part, due to regional differences in compensation as discussed above. Fossil Fuel companies refer to those
operating in the oil sands. In some cases these companies offer higher average wages than other mining companies
(e.g., for surface labourers), but in other cases they do not (e.g., for dragline/shovel operators).
At the same time that wages are rising, weekly hours worked per employee have also increased. Figure 8, which reports
on weekly hours worked in 10-year increments, shows that these hours have risen, on average, by eight per cent over
the past 20 years — with the largest increases in the Territories at 11.5 per cent. This is perhaps due to the expansion
of diamond mining and the industry’s goal of minimizing labour transportation costs relative to hours worked.
Figure 6
Hourly Total Compensation Rates by Region
$60.00
$50.00
$40.00
Canadian Average for Mining
$40.42 per hour
$30.00
$20.00
$10.00
$0.00
Atlantic
Quebec
Ontario
Prairies
British Columbia
Territories
Source: Mining Industry Human Resources Council; Statistics Canada, Special Aggregations from Productivity Measures, Income and Expenditure Accounts Division, February 2009.
2010 Employment and Hiring Forecasts
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