Statistical insights on the arts

Statistical insights on the arts

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Statistical insights on the arts
Statistical insights on the arts
Technical workers in the arts, culture, and heritage earn less than other technical workers in most provinces
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Technical workers in the arts, culture, and heritage earn less than other technical workers in most provinces

Also: The wage levels of technical workers vary between the provinces

Hill Strategies (Kelly Hill)'s avatar
Hill Strategies (Kelly Hill)
May 06, 2025
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Statistical insights on the arts
Statistical insights on the arts
Technical workers in the arts, culture, and heritage earn less than other technical workers in most provinces
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Today, I examine data on the median wages of employed workers in technical occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage, and I provide comparisons with technical workers in other parts of the economy.

Statistics Canada’s grouping of technical occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage includes:

  • Technical workers in the performing arts, film, broadcasting, sound recording, libraries, and archives (e.g., “technicians” in each of these areas)

  • Graphic and interior designers

Across Canada, there are about 122,000 employed workers in this occupation grouping.

This analysis follows last week’s article on the median wages of employed professional workers in each province. Earlier, I analyzed national data on the median wages of employed professional and technical workers in the arts, culture, and heritage.

The data only include people with an employed position in technical occupations, not the self-employed. In addition, the Labour Force Survey doesn’t have a large enough sample size, even in its annual averages, to delve into occupation-by-occupation details. Hence the focus on a readily available summary grouping (i.e., technical workers).

For the provincial analysis, I decided to calculate a three-year average (i.e., average of 2022 to 2024). This was done to smooth out the significant year-to-year variations in some provincial wage statistics, variations that are probably due to the relatively low sample sizes. A nice bonus is that this technique allows me to provide estimates for all 10 provinces, despite one year of data being not reliable in some. But it means that the national wage estimates are different from my previous post.

Given the lack of precision in the estimates, I’ve decided to round off the median wage calculations to the nearest dollar. Wage differences are calculated using unrounded figures and may not match the differences in the rounded figures.


Provincial differences in the wages of employees in technical occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage

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