Publisher's Warning

If tiny minority wins on Budget day, average Canadians will lose cost-of-living edge over Americans

By: Ish Theilheimer

  On February 8, the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) reported that average Canadian workers ranks third in the world in gross pay, with Americans seventh. Although Canadians pay slightly more taxes and public pension premiums than Americans, they still have more take-home pay.
  Over the past two weeks, the Straight Goods "green grass" team has been eyeing both our lawn and that of our neighbour to the south.
  We did a survey to check out the common belief that Americans are better-off than Canadians. The results are in. The myth is trash. Average Canadians earn more, take home more, and pay a lot less for enough important things to make up for the few things that are cheaper in the US. We looked at incomes, taxes, and the costs of major and frequent expenses like housing, groceries, drugs, entertainment, eating out.
  We've asked reporters and correspondents all over Canada and the US. We've looked at StatsCan and OECD numbers.
  On February 8, the 24-nation OECD reported, in an international survey of average gross- and take-home pay, [www.oecd.org/news_and_events/publish/ pb00-02a.htm].
  Even without including health care, average Canadians come out well ahead in all but a few categories. Throw in health care and there's no contest - for now.
  For a complete review of our survey, please see: The myth of cheaper living in the US.
  Check out the numbers. Do your own comparisons. It's pretty stark. Average Canadian families are a LOT better off than Americans with similar jobs in similar places.
  Keep in mind that average Canadian families, according to StatsCan [www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/People/Families/famil05a.htm] have incomes of $57,146. The average individual income is $25,005, with the average full-time, full-year worker making more like $38,000.
  The majority of Canadians - 62% - earn under $40,000 (StatsCan, 1997); three out of four Canadian workers - 76.5% - earn under $50,000 [www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/People/Labour/labor02a.htm.
  These are not the people who own newspapers and radio stations and spend most of their time lobbying for tax cuts. In Ontario, you can be locked up for this. They call it aggressive panhandling.
  How much do these people earn, the ones leading the fight for tax cuts? As good Canadians, we're too polite to ask. But look at the chart below, drawn from Statistics Canada numbers for 1997, and it's pretty easy to figure where Tom D'Aquino, Ralph Klein, Mike Harris, Conrad Black, and other tax cut champions fit in.
  They're way up high in the top 13 percent who make over $60,000. And we know most of them haul down a lot more than 60K. Without prying or quibbling, we can safely assume they're in the top few percent.
  But they're calling the shots for all of us. And as Linda McQuaig shows in Budget will renege on health care, schools and kids to appease tax cut lobby, the impact for the rest of us is staggering.
  It's lineups at emergency rooms. It's backlogs at seniors' homes and homecare agencies. It's students graduating from university with enormous debtloads. And it's a whole generation of boomers nearing retirement age who haven't got a clue where they'll find support when they're too old to work and, surprise, surprise, they haven't been able to afford to keep up RRSP payments.
  Believe it or not, our grass in Canada is a whole lot greener for average Canadians. But are we too nice to fight to keep a teeny tiny number of bullies and loudmouths from trampling our lawn?

- Ish Theilheimer
- February 27, 2000

Wanna fight?
ish@straightgoods.com

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Here's who's making what in Canada today. The graph shows the percentage of the full-time, full-year workforce earning various levels of income:

Income*	Percent of Canadian full-time, full-year workers, 1997 (Stats Can)
Under $5,000	1.7%
$5,000-$9,999	3.3%
$10,000-$14,999	5.7%
$15,000-$19,999	7.7%
$20,000-$24,999	10.7%
$25,000-$29,999	11.5%
$30,000-$34,999	11.7%
$35,000-$39,999	9.6%
$40,000-$44,999	8.6%
$45,000-$49,999	6.0%
$50,000-$59,999	10.4%
$60,000 and over	13.2%

* source: www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/People/Labour/labor02a.htm

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