City workers: one third earn more than $100K
One third of the city’s workers earn more than $100,000 a year, a figure mostly explained by police overtime.
But is it so shocking? Consider the calculations recently made in a comment here by reader Mozai: “rentals.ca monthly report says the avg 3½ in Montreal is $1805/month. If we go by the “use one third of your take-home income for paying for renting a home,” then a person living alone in Montreal needs a $102k job.” Not to live in a palace, but in a 3½.
Ian 10:22 on 2024-01-08 Permalink
The first “sunshine list” of public employees making over 100k was from Mike Harris in 1996.
It should come as no surprise that over 28 years the shock value is lessened – $100,000 in 1996 is worth $177,538.71 today.
More recent numbers :
“A middle class income in Canada can be defined as an after-tax personal income between $53,359 and $106,717 annually. More specifically, a middle class income is anything that’s between 75% to 200% of the median household income after tax – and this after-tax number for Canadians is $66,800.”
Of course it goes a little further in Montreal than Toronto but the difference is not as significant these days as it was in 1996 either.
“You would need around 8,358.3C$ in Toronto to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 6,700.0C$ in Montreal (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare the cost of living and assume net earnings (after income tax).”
Mark 10:27 on 2024-01-08 Permalink
I think the 40+ years of relatively low inflation in western societies has obviously influenced our societal discourse about certain “symbolic” amounts. The million dollar home, the 100k salary, fed by the media, hollywood, etc, became these mythical crowns of financial achievement.
There is no doubt that 100k a year and a million dollar home means you’re better off than most, but it doesn’t mean the same as it used to. Even 10 years ago, those were levels reserved for a select few, and now, not so much. A lot of people earning 100k who bought homes in the last 5-7 years were probably approved for mortgages well above 500k, and are now getting slaughtered with interest.
Having lived in a few other countries with much higher inflation (30-50%), it was hard to pin down much specific “I’m rich” amounts, because the goal posts kept moving.
Blork 10:43 on 2024-01-08 Permalink
I agree with Mark regarding the discourse about symbolic amounts. If you’re over 50 years old you probably grew up thinking of 100K as a rich person’s income, practically unattainable for regular people. By the 90s it was just a really really good salary. Now it’s just a good salary (it’s only 3x minimum wage). But the symbolic aspect persists for those of us of a certain age.