When people picture a high-paying career in Canada, they usually land on the same handful of options — doctor, lawyer, engineer, maybe something in finance. And look, those jobs pay well. Nobody is arguing that.
But a fresh batch of data from Statistics Canada tells a slightly different story. According to the latest Labour Force Survey numbers for May 2026, some of the biggest paycheques in the country are going to workers in industries that don't exactly scream "prestigious career path."
To keep things as accurate as possible, the rankings are based on median weekly wages for full-time workers between the ages of 25 and 54 (a range Statistics Canada considers core working age). Medians give a clearer picture of what a typical worker actually takes home, rather than letting a handful of ultra-high earners skew the numbers.
Here's how Canada's major job sectors ranked in May 2026, from lowest to highest.
16. Accommodation & food services — $800/week ($41,600/year)
The restaurant and hospitality industry has never been known for its paycheques, and the latest data confirms that hasn't changed.
Workers in this category include restaurant staff, bartenders, hotel employees, cooks, servers and anyone working the counter at a cafe or fast food chain. At $800 a week, it sits dead last among all major Canadian industries. The one silver lining is that wages were up 5% from a year ago, one of the stronger year-over-year increases on this list, and the sector added 17,000 jobs in May alone.
15. Business support services — $1,000/week ($52,000/year)
This category covers a lot of ground. Staffing agencies, call centres, security services, janitorial companies and waste management operations all fall under this umbrella.
These are the jobs that keep other businesses running behind the scenes, and they don't tend to pay especially well for it. Wage growth was essentially flat compared to last year, with median weekly earnings sitting almost exactly where they were in May 2025.
14. Agriculture — $1,070/week ($55,682/year)
Farming, ranching, greenhouse work and other food production roles make up this category.
It's worth keeping in mind that agricultural wages can shift significantly depending on the time of year and harvest cycles, so the May figures don't always tell the whole story. What the data does make clear is that wages here have been heading in the wrong direction. Agriculture posted the biggest year-over-year wage decline of any sector in the latest report, falling 4.2% from May 2025.
13. Sales — $1,120/week ($58,240/year)
Retail associates, cashiers, wholesale distributors and account representatives are among the workers captured in this category. Wages were actually up nearly 6% from last year, one of the stronger increases on this list.
The employment picture is less encouraging though. The sector shed 35,000 jobs in May and was down 64,000 positions compared to a year earlier, which means some of that wage growth may simply reflect lower-paying jobs disappearing from the mix rather than workers actually earning more.
12. Other services — $1,173/week ($61,006/year)
This is Statistics Canada's catch-all category for service jobs that don't fit neatly elsewhere. Repair and maintenance shops, personal care services, pet care, dry cleaning, religious organizations and some non-profits all land here.
Because the category bundles together such different types of work, pay can vary quite a bit depending on the specific role. Wage growth of just 1.7% over the past year didn't come close to keeping up with inflation.
11. Health care & social assistance — $1,250/week ($65,000/year)
This one tends to surprise people. Health care sits lower on the list than most would expect, and the reason comes down to how broad the category actually is.
Doctors and surgeons are in here, yes, but so are personal support workers, social workers, counsellors and many other roles that make up the backbone of Canada's health system. The median reflects all of them together. Wage growth was also among the weakest on this list at just 0.9% over the past year, well below the current rate of inflation.
10. Transportation & warehousing — $1,300/week ($67,600/year)
Truck drivers, pilots, transit operators, couriers, rail workers and warehouse staff all fall into this category.
The sector added 19,000 jobs in May and was up 36,000 positions from a year earlier, which sounds encouraging. The wage picture tells a different story though. Median weekly earnings dropped 3.3% compared to May 2025, making transportation and warehousing one of only a handful of industries where workers are actually taking home less than they were a year ago.
9. Manufacturing — $1,346/week ($69,992/year)
Auto assembly, food processing, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and machinery production are among the industries grouped under manufacturing.
Despite ongoing uncertainty tied to U.S. tariffs and trade tensions, wages in the sector grew 6.8% over the past year, one of the strongest increases of any industry on this list. Employment has been more of a mixed bag. Manufacturing added 15,000 jobs in May but remains down 44,000 positions compared to January 2025, with Statistics Canada pointing to U.S. trade policy as a key factor.
8. Information, culture & recreation — $1,470/week ($76,440/year)
This category casts a wider net than the name might suggest. Media, broadcasting, film and television, publishing, telecommunications, museums, performing arts and spectator sports all fall under this umbrella.
Professional athletes are in the mix too, which helps pull the median upward.
The sector added 19,000 jobs in May, one of the bigger employment gains of the month, though wage growth of 2.4% over the past year came in just below the current inflation rate.
7. Construction — $1,600/week ($83,200/year)
Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, heavy equipment operators and site supervisors make up a big part of this category.
Construction added 27,000 jobs in May, the largest single-month gain of any industry in the country. Wages grew 2.1% over the past year, which is modest but relatively consistent across the sector. Unlike some other high-paying industries where a small number of top earners skew the numbers significantly, pay in construction tends to be spread more evenly across the workforce. For anyone willing to pursue a skilled trade, the data makes a pretty compelling case.
6. Finance, insurance, real estate & leasing — $1,615/week ($83,990/year)
Banking, investing, insurance, mortgage lending and real estate services are among the careers grouped here. This is the sector most people picture when they think about high-paying jobs in Canada, and while it does land near the top, it doesn't claim the top spot.
Wages grew 7.3% over the past year, the second-strongest increase of any industry on this list. The category also covers more ground than its name implies, including many administrative and customer service roles that bring the median down from where you might otherwise expect it to be.
5. Education — $1,634/week ($84,958/year)
Teachers, professors, instructors and educational consultants make up the bulk of this category.
Wages were up 4.9% from last year, meaning workers in education actually saw real wage growth above the current inflation rate of 2.8%. That puts educators ahead of many better-known high-paying fields when it comes to how much purchasing power their paycheques actually gained over the past year.
Pay also tends to be distributed more evenly across the sector compared to industries where a handful of top earners pull the median significantly higher.
4. Public administration — $1,748/week ($90,875/year)
Government jobs across all levels land in the top four. Federal departments, provincial ministries and municipal governments are all represented here, along with a wide range of roles including policy analysts, administrators, firefighters and police officers.
Pay growth was weak at just 1% over the past year, falling short of inflation, but the combination of above-average wages, job stability and relatively predictable career progression keeps public administration near the top of the rankings.
3. Professional, scientific & technical services — $1,769/week ($92,001/year)
This is where lawyers, engineers, software developers, architects, accountants and researchers tend to land.
These are the careers most commonly associated with high pay in Canada, and they do deliver. Wage growth of just 2.2% over the past year came in slightly below the inflation rate though, meaning workers in this category are technically earning a little less in real terms than they were a year ago despite the strong baseline.
2. Utilities — $2,031/week ($105,602/year)
Power generation, water supply and waste management workers are among the highest-paid employees in the country. Utilities is one of only two sectors on this list where median weekly wages cross the six-figure mark on an annual basis.
Wages were actually down 3.7% from a year ago, making it one of the few industries to post a year-over-year decline. The baseline is high enough that it still holds the second spot comfortably, but the downward trend is worth watching.
1. Natural resources — $2,240/week ($116,480/year)
Forestry, mining, oil and gas, fishing and quarrying workers top the list by a wide margin. The median weekly wage of $2,240 is more than $200 ahead of second place and over $600 above the national median across all sectors.
Wages in natural resources also grew faster than any other industry over the past year, jumping 9.9% compared to May 2025. Many of these jobs are physically demanding, highly specialized or located in remote parts of the country, which helps explain why employers pay a premium to attract workers.
For Canadians focused purely on maximizing their earnings, no other industry comes close.
This story was inspired by the article "These are Canada's highest-paying job fields right now and #1 isn't medicine, law or finance" which was originally published on Narcity.
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