Full-time teaching staff at Canadian universities, 2023/2024
Released: 2024-11-25
Today, Statistics Canada is releasing data on full-time teaching staff at universities for 2023/2024. That year, there were 48,960 full-time teachers at Canadian universities. Close to half (48.5%; 23,745) were professors at one of the 15 leading research universities that are members of U15 Canada. U15 Canada is an association of 15 leading research universities across Canada comprising a homogenous group of universities that receive a large portion of federal research funding.
U15 Canada professors at all academic ranks have a higher median salary
In 2023/2024, the median salary of full-time teachers at Canadian universities—all academic ranks combined—was $151,700, up 3.9% from $146,000 in 2022/2023 and 11.9% higher than $135,600 recorded five years earlier. These increases were driven by wage gains that were negotiated and accepted over this period.
In 2022/2023, U15 Canada member universities received 71.0% ($3.4 billion) of the $4.8 billion in funding granted to Canadian universities by the federal government. Universities that receive federal funding have a greater ability to attract professors and researchers from Canada and abroad, since they can offer a more competitive salary.
When accounting for all academic ranks, the median salary of professors at a U15 Canada member university in 2023/2024 was $164,750, compared with $139,550 for professors at universities that are not members of U15 Canada. Differences in the median salary of professors at U15 Canada member universities and professors at other universities were observed at every academic rank. For full professors, which is the highest rank a professor can attain, the wage gap stood at $25,450. Full professors at a non-U15 Canada member university earned a median salary of $171,275, or 87.1% of the median salary of full professors at a U15 Canada member university ($196,725).
For the other academic ranks, the median salary gaps between professors at a U15 Canada member university and professors at other universities were smaller. For example, associate professors at a non-U15 Canada member university earned 89.3% ($139,875) of the median salary of associate professors at a U15 Canada member university ($156,550). Similarly, assistant professors at non-U15 Canada member universities earned 88.6% ($112,225) of the median salary of assistant professors at a U15 Canada member university ($126,650).
Chart 1
Median salary of teaching staff by academic rank and institution membership of U15 Canada, 2023/2024
The wage gap between men and women at all academic ranks has been stable for years
In 2023/2024, women professors had a slightly lower income than their male counterparts. This was observed among professors at both U15 Canada member universities and other universities.
Differences in the median salary of men and women were similar at all academic ranks. In 2023/2024, full professors who are women ($178,950) earned 95.8% of the median salary of full professors who are men ($186,775) at all universities. Over the past 10 years, the median gender wage ratio of full professors has varied little, with its lowest level in 2016/2017 (95.0%) and its highest in 2021/2022 (96.6%). A number of factors may contribute to the ongoing wage gap, such as women having, on average, fewer years of experience at that rank than men.
In 2023/2024, associate professors who are women earned a median salary of $143,850, or 97.0% of the median salary of their colleagues who are men ($148,375). This is slightly lower than the ratio of 98.1% observed 10 years ago. In addition, assistant professors who are women ($116,025) earned 97.3% of the median salary earned by assistant professors who are men ($119,225) in 2023/2024, which is a slightly lower ratio than the one recorded 10 years earlier (98.4%).
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Note to readers
The University and College Academic Staff System provides a detailed portrait of full-time academic staff at public universities in Canada. This includes gender, year of birth, year at rank, principal subject taught, academic rank, salary and administrative stipends, administrative responsibilities, previous employment, and province or country of degrees earned.
U15 Canada comprises the following member universities: Dalhousie University, McMaster University, Université de Montréal, University of Ottawa, University of Manitoba, Université Laval, McGill University, Queen's University, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, University of Saskatchewan, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and Western University.
For 2023/2024, data for some institutions were estimated based on the previous year's data, as these institutions were unable to submit data before the deadline for various reasons. This information will be updated once the transition is complete and final salaries are submitted to Statistics Canada. For the purposes of this analysis, 2022/2023 data were used for the University of Toronto.
The calculation of median salaries excludes the salaries of deans and directors equivalent to deans, staff on unpaid leave, staff with no salary and staff with a lower salary scale than regular scales. In addition, only data from universities with more than 100 full-time professors are included in this analysis and have been published. Some data provided to Statistics Canada on wages may come from collective agreements that have expired or are being renewed, which can affect the conclusions drawn in this analysis.
Products
The interactive data visualization tool "Statistics on full-time academic teaching staff at Canadian universities: Interactive tool" (71-607-X) is available
Contact information
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