Translators, terminologists and interpreters salary in Canada
$67,085CAD/YR
Translators, terminologists and interpreters in Canada earn a median of $67,085 a year, about $33.95 an hour.
SOURCE·Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wage data·Open Government Licence – Canada·REVIEWED 2025
What $67,085 is actually worth
Move this wage out of Canada and it converts to $47,561. Spend it where it was earned and it buys what $53,222 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 67,085 / FX(CAD->USD) adjusted = CAD 67,085 / 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 | $96,370 | +44% |
| Outaouais | $81,727 | +22% |
| Capitale-Nationale | $74,634 | +11% |
| Chaudière-Appalaches | $73,250 | +9% |
| Montérégie | $73,033 | +9% |
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | $72,875 | +9% |
| Lanaudière | $72,144 | +8% |
| Laval | $71,689 | +7% |
| Quebec | $71,650 | +7% |
| Montréal | $71,650 | +7% |
| Mauricie | $71,511 | +7% |
| Laurentides | $71,096 | +6% |
| Centre-du-Québec | $68,271 | +2% |
| Estrie | $67,085 | +0% |
| Côte-Nord | $67,085 | +0% |
| British Columbia | $66,295 | -1% |
| Saskatchewan | $66,255 | -1% |
| Vancouver Island and Coast | $64,655 | -4% |
| Alberta | $63,785 | -5% |
| Lower Mainland | $63,627 | -5% |
| Edmonton | $63,054 | -6% |
| Calgary | $61,928 | -8% |
| Nova Scotia | $59,280 | -12% |
| Halifax | $59,280 | -12% |
| New Brunswick | $59,280 | -12% |
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 | $67,085 | The middle earner |
| Mean | $70,405 | Pulled up by top earners |
| 25th percentile | $50,665 | — |
| 75th percentile | $82,083 | — |
| Hourly | $33.95 | 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 translators, terminologists and interpreters earn in Canada?
- The median is $67,085 a year, about $33.95 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. $67,085 converts to $47,561 at the exchange rate on 2026-07-29, and buys what $53,222 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
- Archivists $77,538
- Authors and writers (except technical) $72,737
- Conductors, composers and arrangers $36,000
- Conservators and curators $71,847
- Editors $68,409
- Journalists $72,954
- Librarians $81,431
- Musicians and singers $32,867
- Producers, directors, choreographers and related occupations $81,075
- Technical writers $71,255
