this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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The “good news“ mentioned in this article is that your effective tax rate is lower because wages haven’t kept up with inflation. Yay?
Over the last year wage growth significantly outpaced inflation.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/bank-canada-may-trail-fed-rate-cut-wage-growth-runs-hot-2024-01-17/
According to that article wage growth outpaced inflation in 2023 by 2.3%.
This site breaks down various numbers
https://mishtalk.com/economics/how-is-canadian-wage-growth-stacking-up-to-inflation/
I couldn't find a more official source, so take the numbers with some doubt.
In any case, nominal wage growth Mar 2020 - Nov 2023 was 14.7%, which is -1.3% after inflation. If we start that window in Jan 2020 we actually have a net positive 2.1% wage growth after inflation. That is 0.5% on an annualized basis.
Wage growth has been surprisingly strong post-pandemic. I think it's going to be more sticky than inflation as well. The main 'issue' is that the wage growth isn't being matched by improved economic output, which isn't a great thing for the economy in the longer term.