A Financial Planner Broke Down How Much You Need To Make To Be Considered Rich In Quebec
It's maybe lower than you think.
Denis Bourque.
Everyone considers themselves middle class. It's a political fiction. But, as financial planner Denis Bourque shows in a January Tiktok video, a breakdown of average salaries in Quebec reveals the province's true class thresholds.
Narcity Québec was first to report this story.
Bourque told MTL Blog he used Statistics Canada data from 2021 and Revenu Québec data from 2019 to identify the income a resident would need "to be considered rich" in the Quebec context.
He put the average 2021 individual salary in Quebec at around $55,000. For households, he said, the average was $81,800. Across Canada, only the top 10% of earners made above $97,600. Though Bourque made the point that Quebec's average was likely lower since higher wages in the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia likely buoy the national average.
In Quebec in 2019 (the latest year for which Revenu Québec has made data available), only 11.28% of workers were in the $70,000 to $99,999 income group. Only 8.29% of workers made more than $100,000.
@denisbourque.pl.fin.baa Nous devons gagner combien au Québec pour être considérés riches? #pourtoi #planificationfinanciere #Québec #LiberteFinanciere #financepersonnelle
Statistics Canada put the average hourly wage in Quebec at $29.39 in December 2021. That's about $57,310 annually for 7.5 hours of work a day, five days a week for 52 weeks.
In Ontario, the average hourly rate was $31.13 (about $60,703 annually), according to the same source. It was $32.91/hour (about $64,174 annually) in Alberta and $31.05/hour ($60,547) in British Columbia.
But it's all relative. Bourque makes the point that we're already likely in the top 5% globally if we have access to a job, drinkable water, food and housing — not to mention a robust net of social programs like Quebec's.