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Wages and costs: Definitions, graphs and data

Definitions

Wage-common

The wage-common is an underlying wage pressures indicator using available hourly wage measures from the Labour Force Survey, the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hour, the Productivity Accounts and the National Accounts.

Read staff analytical note Wages: Measurement and Key Drivers.

Labour Force Survey - Average Hourly Earnings

Usual wages or salary of employees at their main job before taxes and other deductions, and including tips, commissions and bonuses.

Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours – Average Hourly Earnings

Gross taxable payroll before source deductions, excluding overtime pay, of employees in all jobs.

Productivity Accounts – Compensation per Hour

Labour compensation includes all payments in cash or in kind made by domestic producers to persons as remuneration for work. This includes salaries and supplementary labour income of paid workers, plus an imputed labour income of self-employed workers.

National Accounts – Hourly Wages and Salaries

Wages and salaries of employees in all jobs.

Unit Labour Costs

Unit labour cost is the labour cost per unit of output. It is calculated as the ratio of labour compensation to real value added. It is also the equivalent of the ratio of labour compensation per hour worked to labour productivity. The unit labour cost will increase when hourly compensation rises faster than labour productivity.

Bank of Canada Commodity Price Index

The Bank of Canada commodity price index is a chain Fisher price index of the spot or transaction prices in U.S. dollars of 24 commodities produced in Canada and sold in world markets. Commodity weights are updated on an quarterly basis using recent commodity production and price data. 

Commodity price index

The Bank of Canada commodity price index (BCPI) is a chain Fisher price index of the spot or transaction prices in U.S. dollars of 24 commodities produced in Canada and sold in world markets.