Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
A typical CPA in Canada earns about $84,000 a year before tax. That’s the median of $40.36 an hour on Job Bank’s wage page for CPAs and CGAs, stretched over 2,080 hours, and the published range runs from roughly $25 to $71 an hour. Think of it as a ballpark, not a quote.
What CPA salary does Job Bank show?
Job Bank groups “chartered professional accountant, certified general accountant” under one occupation and publishes a low, median and high hourly wage for each province. The page was updated on 19 November 2025 and draws on 2023 and 2024 Labour Force Survey data, so offers on the table today may sit a little higher.
| Region | Low per hour | Median per hour | High per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | $25.00 | $40.36 | $71.43 |
| Ontario | $24.73 | $40.87 | $72.12 |
| Alberta | $27.70 | $43.27 | $72.12 |
| British Columbia | $25.64 | $40.00 | $66.11 |
| Quebec | $24.62 | $40.00 | $66.67 |
| Nova Scotia | $21.15 | $36.54 | $57.69 |
The page doesn’t spell out how Job Bank defines its low and high figures, or whether bonuses count, so read them as a rough spread of base hourly pay.
How do you turn an hourly wage into a yearly one?
Multiply the hourly rate by the hours in your week, then by 52. At 40 hours a week that’s 2,080 hours a year, which is where the $84,000 above comes from ($40.36 times 2,080 is $83,949). If your job is 37.5 hours a week, use 1,950 hours instead and the same $40.36 becomes about $78,700. A couple of hours a week doesn’t sound like much until you see it on the year.
How much does a CPA keep after tax?
Hourly rates feel abstract until you see what lands in your account. So we assumed 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, which is 2,080 hours, and ran each Ontario wage through our pay engine with 2026 rates.
| Ontario wage | Yearly pay | Income tax | CPP and EI | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $24.73 low | $51,438 | $6,526 | $3,691 | $41,221 |
| $40.87 median | $85,010 | $15,554 | $5,770 | $63,686 |
| $72.12 high | $150,010 | $39,915 | $5,770 | $104,326 |
In paycheque terms, the median earner’s $63,686 works out to roughly $5,300 a month, and the low earner’s $41,221 to about $3,400. The top earner keeps about 70 cents of every dollar, against about 80 cents for the low earner. That gap is the progressive tax system doing its job.
See how the top earner pays $5,770 into CPP and EI, exactly the same as the median earner. Both contributions stop at a yearly ceiling, so after that point every extra dollar is taxed and nothing else comes off. You can rerun any of these with the take-home pay calculator.
Why does the range get so wide?
Job Bank puts everyone with the CPA or CGA designation into one occupation, so a new hire and a veteran sit in the same table. The page doesn’t split them by experience, firm size or specialty, and we won’t guess at the split.
Owners are a different case altogether. Someone running a solo practice pays tax as self-employed, not on a wage. The self-employed tax calculator gives a rough idea, though it leaves out EI and treats deductions in a simple way, so use it as a guide only.
What should you compare a job offer against?
Start with the region line in the table. An offer at $38 an hour in Toronto isn’t a bad one on its own, since the Ontario median is $40.87. But $38 in Calgary sits below that province’s median of $43.27, a gap of about $11,000 a year over 2,080 hours.
Then look at the whole year. A raise to $45 an hour moves you from $85,010 to $93,600, and the salary increase calculator shows how much of the extra you actually keep. The engine says you’d keep about $6,044 of the extra $8,590. Ask about overtime too, and whether extra hours are paid or just expected.
A bonus is taxed at the same rates as pay, so it doesn’t escape anything. The bonus tax calculator shows the real net.
Does a salaried job pay less per hour than it looks?
It can. Take a salary of $85,010. Spread over a 40-hour week it works out to $40.87 an hour. If the job quietly asks for 50 hours, the same salary is about $32.70 an hour (50 hours times 52 weeks is 2,600 hours). Nobody changed the number on your contract, but you’re working for a few bucks less every hour.
Mistakes and limits
Don’t treat a median as a promise. By definition half the group sits below it, and this one doesn’t adjust for experience, firm size or specialty.
Don’t compare an hourly wage with a salaried offer until you’ve checked the hours. Ask.
And remember we didn’t find an official figure for CPA pay by years of experience, so there isn’t one here.
Sources, and how we checked them
Wages are from Job Bank (Government of Canada), occupation 11100, updated 19 November 2025, with a 2023 to 2024 reference period. Take-home figures use 2026 federal and Ontario rates and CPP and EI limits published by the CRA. The hours assumption is ours. This site has no link with Job Bank or any government body.
Frequently asked questions
What is the median CPA wage in Canada?
Job Bank shows a national median of $40.36 an hour for chartered professional accountants and certified general accountants, with a low of $25.00 and a high of $71.43.
How much is that per year?
At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, the median is about $84,000 before tax. That is our assumption of hours, not a Job Bank figure.
Which province pays CPAs most?
Among the larger provinces in Job Bank's table, Alberta has the highest median at $43.27 an hour. Nunavut and the Northwest Territories show higher medians but are much smaller markets.
How old is the data?
Job Bank updated the page on 19 November 2025 and uses 2023 and 2024 wage data, so current offers may be higher.
Do these wages include bonuses?
We couldn't confirm that from the page, so treat the figures as base hourly pay.
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