Canada

Canada — Wage workers

CA desk: Canada first; United States, United Kingdom, euro area, Australia, Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand alongside.

87.09%

+0.11 pp

As of 2025 | % of total employment

Latest
87.09% 2025
Previous year
86.98% 2024
Min
82.82% 1998
Max
87.09% 2025
YearWage workers
202587.09%
202486.98%
202386.82%
202286.53%
202186.00%
202084.84%
201985.21%
201884.93%
201785.13%
201685.05%
201585.00%
201485.00%
201384.81%
201284.80%
201184.66%
201084.46%
200984.09%
200884.61%
200784.62%
200684.68%
200584.39%
200484.57%
200384.60%
200284.80%
#CountryWage workersChangeYear
8United States93.93%+0.11 pp202533Canada87.09%+0.11 pp202534United Kingdom86.85%+0.07 pp202540Euro area86.05%+0.06 pp202549Australia83.90%+0.11 pp202559New Zealand81.59%+0.19 pp2025
92Mexico69.15%−0.01 pp2025

What wage and salaried workers are

Wage and salaried workers (SL.EMP.WORK.ZS, modelled ILO estimate) are employees as a share of total employment — people who work for a wage or salary. Latest: 87.09% in 2025.

The complement is mostly self-employment and contributing family work. It says nothing about the size of the pay packet. From 1991 to 2025 (35 years): latest 87.09% (2025), previous year 86.98% (2024); low 82.82% (1998), high 87.09% (2025).

Source: World Bank Open Data. Licence: CC BY 4.0 (terms).

Reading this series

This series is the share of total employment made up of wage and salaried workers: people who work for an employer and receive a wage or salary. It comes from World Bank Open Data indicator SL.EMP.WORK.ZS, a modelled ILO estimate. The unit is a percentage of total employment, not a pay level, so a high reading describes how work is organised rather than how well it pays. The remaining share is mostly self-employed people and contributing family workers.

Because the indicator is modelled, its values are estimates built from national surveys, censuses and administrative sources and are revised as new inputs arrive. Coverage and informality definitions differ between economies, so compare direction and broad level rather than small gaps. The chart plots annual observations for the economies you select; the ranked table lists each economy’s latest published year. Read the year label, because economies do not report on the same schedule. Employees in informal jobs are still counted here, so a high share is not a measure of job quality.

About this desk

Canada appears first, with comparison economies where the producer publishes them. This desk filters the same official series as the all-countries view; it does not recalculate values.

Output per worker and employment-share indicators come from World Bank Open Data. The employment shares are ILO-modelled estimates published by the Bank. Each page gives its indicator and source link.

Chart and Table show the same observations. Range buttons change only the displayed years; use Country to switch desks. Each page names its source and licence.