N.S. wages grew faster than inflation for the 2nd consecutive year, but remain lowest in Canada

For the last few years, Lakhanpal Singh has had to work two jobs to make ends meet.

The Dartmouth, N.S., resident estimates he works at least 70 hours per week as a plumbing apprentice and a minimum wage security guard. 

Singh also aims to make money by creating content for social media.

"It's kind of like being a working machine," Singh said. "Due to this, my health has been so messed up lately." 

Despite all of that work, things like being able to rent an apartment by himself remain out of reach, with Singh saying his quality of life has gone down compared to when he moved to Halifax several years ago.

Singh is one person among others in Nova Scotia who have experienced this. In 2021 and 2022, many Nova Scotia workers effectively took a pay cut as prices rose faster than wages.

Now that trend seems to be reversing, a CBC News analysis of Statistics Canada data has found. The median Nova Scotia wage in 2024 grew faster than inflation for the second consecutive year. 

Labour economist Lars Osberg said this is good news, but that it also masks the disproportionate and unequal impact inflation has had.

"Low-wage workers spend more of their income on the [necessities] like groceries or rent, and those are the types of goods whose prices have increased most rapidly," said Osberg, a Dalhousie University professor.

In 2024, half of Nova Scotia workers made $25.64 an hour or less. That wage is 1.8 per cent higher than the previous year after accounting for inflation. It's also $1.42 more per hour than the typical worker made a decade ago in the province.

Osberg said that Nova Scotia's minimum wage has begun to keep up with inflation after a period of decline, pushing up the incomes of the lowest-paid workers. 

"Increases in the minimum wage have basically not caused an increase in unemployment," Osberg said of jurisdictions in the United States and Canada. 

"They have … lessened the poverty, lessened the deprivation of low-wage workers."

In January, the Nova Scotia government announced the province's largest ever minimum wage increase. The minimum wage will rise twice this year and go from $15.20 an hour to $16.50 by Oct. 1. 

Singh said that isn't enough. 

"A person who works 40 hours a week, who's working full time, should be able to afford a place to live and food to eat," he said.

Any progress Nova Scotia workers have made could come to a halt if U.S. president Donald Trump makes good on his threats of sweeping tariffs on Canada, Osberg said.

"If there is a trade war with the United States, that means that there's going to be a loss of jobs in trade-dependent sectors" and an increase in the rate of inflation, he said.

Nova Scotia also had the lowest median wage in 2024 out of all provinces and territories.

Singh said he's been trying to save up money for more than a year to eventually buy a home. But, the cost of car repairs and taking time off work when he's been sick has gotten in the way of that.

"It's like you want something but you cannot get it … as much as you try."