Natural and applied science policy researchers, consultants and program officers salary in Canada
$85,502CAD/YR
Natural and applied science policy researchers, consultants and program officers in Canada earn a median of $85,502 a year, about $43.27 an hour.
SOURCE·Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wage data·Open Government Licence – Canada·REVIEWED 2025
What $85,502 is actually worth
Move this wage out of Canada and it converts to $60,618. Spend it where it was earned and it buys what $67,832 buys in the United States. Those are two answers to two different questions, and the distance between them is the thing worth reading — here it is a factor of 1.12.
At the exchange rate At local prices The disagreement
The hollow marker is the exchange-rate reading: what the money is worth if it leaves. The solid marker is the purchasing-power reading: what it is worth if it stays. The hatched span between them is the disagreement, and it is what every single-country salary site leaves out.
SOURCE·European Central Bank reference rates (via Frankfurter) and World Bank PPP conversion factor PA.NUS.PRVT.PP·FX 2026-07-29·REVIEWED PPP 2025
How Canada arrived at this figure, and what it is not
- Employment and Social Development Canada publishes Job Bank wage data for the reference period 2025. We take the occupation row as released and change nothing in it.
- 2021 Census wage distributions by NOC and economic region
- Where the agency publishes a distribution we carry the whole distribution, because a single average throws away the part of the answer people are actually asking about.
- The wage is then read twice: converted at the European Central Bank reference rate for 2026-07-29, and divided by the World Bank purchasing-power conversion factor for CAN. Both readings are printed; neither is presented as the answer.
- Countries measure pay differently. A tax return, an employer payroll survey, a PAYE sample and a household survey are four different instruments, and gaps of a few per cent between countries are the instruments, not the wages.
converted = CAD 85,502 / FX(CAD->USD) adjusted = CAD 85,502 / PPP(CAN) disagreement = adjusted / converted
Where it pays more in Canada
Median pay for this occupation by area, highest-employing first.
| Area | Median | vs national |
|---|---|---|
| Nunavut | $124,034 | +45% |
| Northwest Territories | $111,150 | +30% |
| Ottawa | $94,235 | +10% |
| Quebec | $93,247 | +9% |
| Windsor--Sarnia | $93,247 | +9% |
| Outaouais | $92,556 | +8% |
| Lethbridge--Medicine Hat | $92,556 | +8% |
| North Coast | $92,180 | +8% |
| Muskoka--Kawarthas | $91,765 | +7% |
| Stratford--Bruce Peninsula | $91,430 | +7% |
| Cariboo | $91,410 | +7% |
| Edmonton | $91,370 | +7% |
| Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie | $91,192 | +7% |
| Kingston--Pembroke | $90,165 | +5% |
| Côte-Nord | $89,118 | +4% |
| West Coast--Northern Peninsula--Labrador | $88,960 | +4% |
| Northwest | $88,920 | +4% |
| Thompson--Okanagan | $88,703 | +4% |
| Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula | $88,663 | +4% |
| Abitibi-Témiscamingue | $88,446 | +3% |
| Northeast | $88,327 | +3% |
| Mauricie | $88,110 | +3% |
| Montérégie | $87,892 | +3% |
| London | $87,813 | +3% |
| Swift Current--Moose Jaw | $87,537 | +2% |
Regional figures come from the same release as the national one. Where an area is missing, the source suppressed it for sample-size reasons rather than reporting an unreliable estimate.
Every figure this page rests on
| Reading | CAD | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Median | $85,502 | The middle earner |
| Mean | $90,521 | Pulled up by top earners |
| 25th percentile | $68,488 | — |
| 75th percentile | $104,491 | — |
| Hourly | $43.27 | Median at 38 hrs/week |
Employment and Social Development Canada · 2025
SOURCE·Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wage data·Open Government Licence – Canada·REVIEWED 2025
What people ask next
- How much do natural and applied science policy researchers, consultants and program officers earn in Canada?
- The median is $85,502 a year, about $43.27 an hour, according to Employment and Social Development Canada, Job Bank wage data 2025.
- Is that figure before or after tax?
- Before. Every figure on this page is gross pay as the statistics agency published it — income tax, social contributions and any deductions come off afterwards, and they differ enough between countries that we do not model them.
- Why is the US-dollar figure different depending on where I read it?
- Because there are two of them. $85,502 converts to $60,618 at the exchange rate on 2026-07-29, and buys what $67,832 buys in the United States once Canada's price level is accounted for. The first answers "what could I wire abroad", the second answers "how well does someone live on this".
Related occupations in Canada
- Business development officers and market researchers and analysts $86,944
- Career development practitioners and career counsellors (except education) $59,181
- College and other vocational instructors $88,920
- Economists and economic policy researchers and analysts $95,006
- Education policy researchers, consultants and program officers $82,044
- Educational counsellors $80,700
- Elementary school and kindergarten teachers $85,502
- Health policy researchers, consultants and program officers $85,126
- Judges $387,006
- Lawyers and Quebec notaries $118,086
- Other professional occupations in social science $79,040
- Police investigators and other investigative occupations $110,202
