What is a good salary in Calgary?

What does the typical Calgarian earn?

Statistics Canada publishes income statistics built from income tax returns. For Calgary in 2023, the latest year published:

• Median total income of people with income: $48,810 (Alberta: $47,910)
• People with income of $50,000 or more: 614,520 of 1,254,090, or about 49%
• People with income of $75,000 or more: 390,740, or about 31%
• People with income of $100,000 or more: 247,600, or about 20%

What are Calgary employers paying now?

Two newer measures show what jobs pay rather than what people earn from all sources.

Average weekly earnings: the City of Calgary’s Labour Market Review for August 2026 (based on Statistics Canada data, excluding the self-employed) puts average weekly earnings across all industries in the Calgary census metropolitan area at $1,510.40, with an average 37.4 hours a week. By industry, it ranged from $601.60 in accommodation and food services and $799.10 in retail trade, to $1,523.80 in construction, $2,016.80 in professional, scientific and technical services and $2,910.70 in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. Those two lowest-paid industries also have the shortest average week: 33.9 hours in retail and 30.9 hours in accommodation and food services.

Offered wages: Statistics Canada’s job vacancy survey found the average hourly wage offered for vacancies in the Calgary economic region was $28.40 in the second quarter of 2026, up from $27.10 a year earlier. At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, $28.40/hour is about $59,000 a year.

What do common jobs pay in Calgary?

Job Bank publishes low, median and high hourly wages for each occupation in the Calgary economic region. These medians come from its 2025 release (reference period 2023–2024). Multiply an hourly wage by about 2,080 for a rough full-time yearly figure (40 hours a week, 52 weeks). For example, $20/hour is about $41,600 a year, $30/hour about $62,400 and $40/hour about $83,200.

• Early childhood educators and assistants: $20.00/hour
• Retail sales supervisors: $22.00/hour
• General office support workers: $25.38/hour
• Administrative assistants: $26.43/hour
• Administrative officers: $29.13/hour
• Accounting technicians and bookkeepers: $30.00/hour
• Transport truck drivers: $30.00/hour
• Carpenters: $32.12/hour
• Automotive service technicians and truck and bus mechanics: $32.69/hour
• Welders and related machine operators: $37.72/hour
• Electricians (except industrial and power system): $40.00/hour
• Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses: $48.01/hour
• Software developers and programmers: $48.08/hour

How much do you need to live in Calgary?

Statistics Canada uses the Market Basket Measure to decide whether a family falls below the poverty line. It prices a modest, basic standard of living (food, clothing, transportation, shelter, communication services and other expenses) for each region and compares it with a family’s disposable income. For Calgary in 2025, the threshold for the reference family of two adults and two children was $59,153. Shelter alone accounted for $21,643 of that.

That is a floor, not a comfortable budget. If a job offer leaves your household close to it after tax, it will be hard to cover rent and other costs in Calgary.

When you weigh an offer, look at more than the hourly rate. Ask how many hours a week are guaranteed, whether overtime is paid at 1.5 times your rate after 8 hours a day or 44 a week (Alberta’s rule for most employees), and what benefits come with the job. A $25/hour job with 25 guaranteed hours pays less over a year than a $22/hour job with 40.

How much of your salary do you keep after tax?

Canada and Alberta both tax income in brackets: each rate applies only to the part of your income inside that bracket. These are the 2026 rates published by the Canada Revenue Agency and the Government of Alberta.

• Federal: 14% up to $58,523; 20.5% from $58,523.01 to $117,045; 26% to $181,440; 29% to $258,482; 33% above that
• Alberta: 8% up to $61,200; 10% from $61,200.01 to $154,259; 12% to $185,111; 13% to $246,813; 14% to $370,220; 15% above that
• Combined rate on your next dollar: 22% up to $58,523, 28.5% from there to $61,200, and 30.5% from $61,200 to $117,045, before tax credits