Canadians earned less last year—but not across the board. New taxfiler data from Statistics Canada (StatCan) shows the country’s top earners barely budged in 2023, even as most earners saw their income eroded by inflation. But the real insight isn’t who made the most—it’s how they made it. As poorly targeted policies continue to penalize labour and reward non-productive speculation, the income gap is shifting—from how much you earn to how much you already have.
Canadians Need To Earn $294k To Join The 1%—And It’s Falling
It got slightly easier—on paper—to join Canada’s wealthy elite. The income threshold for the top 1% slipped to $293.8k in 2023, down slightly from 2022. The bar for the top 0.1% even fell 1.3% to $930.1k, and the 0.01% threshold slipped 1.4% to $3.49 million. Yes, these thresholds are still absurdly far from where the average Canadian currently sits.
The threshold remains 10 to 100 times higher than the average taxfiler’s income, which fell to $59.9k, down 0.3% (-$1,900) from the previous year. StatCan notes incomes remain above 2019 levels—but just barely, with inflation eating most of the progress.
Canadian Wages Are Falling Fastest At The Top
Wages are shrinking fastest at the top. The average one-percenter saw income from wages or salary fall 4.2% (-$16.5k) to $372.7k in 2023. For the top 0.1%, wages dropped 8.7% (-$112.2k) to $1.17 million, and the 0.01% took the biggest hit—down 12.2% (-$549k) to $3.94 million. We know—it’s not enough to earn a living, but it’s a start.
But don’t worry—Canada’s elite aren’t hurting. They’re just earning less from work and more from everything else. When all income sources are included, the top 1% averaged $606k in 2023, down just 0.6%, with other sources offsetting nearly the entire decline reported in wages. The top 0.1% slipped 1.0% (-$22k) to $2.13 million, and the 0.01% actually saw income rise 0.2% (+$16.5k) to $7.74 million. Phew! That was close.
Canada’s Disturbing Incentive Problem: Work Less, Earn More
Share of income from wages or salary, Canadian taxfilers (%).
Source: StatCan; Better Dwelling.
The average Canadian is more reliant on wages than at any point since 2016. In 2023, the bottom 99% earned 67.1% of their income from wages—a sign that most still depend on labour, not leverage. It’s likely not a coincidence that as speculative housing profits evaporated, wage dependency among ordinary Canadians surged right back to where the housing bubble first inflated.
At the top, it’s a different story. The 1% drew just 61.5% of their income from wages last year, down from 63.8% in 2022 and the lowest share since 2019. That nearly 6-point gap is already significant—and it only widens further up the income ladder.
Work is so 2010s for Canada’s truly rich. The top 0.1% of earners saw their share of income from wages decline to 55.0% in 2023, down 4.7 percentage points from 2022. That’s the smallest share since 1984.
The 0.01% earned just half (50.8%) of their income from wages, the smallest share since 1982, when Canada was battling inflation, unemployment, and a stalled economy. In a world of rapid change, some things haven’t changed.
The shift in income sources at the top underscores how policy has been geared against actual work. Incentives continue to favour non-productive capital—such as dividend income and real estate speculation—while wages bear the heaviest tax burden. Those with assets can pivot easily, but wage earners can’t. As housing policy doubles down on its focus on rewarding asset inflation, productivity stagnates while inequality continues to widen.
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