School principals and administrators of elementary and secondary education salary in Canada
$109,253CAD/YR
School principals and administrators of elementary and secondary education in Canada earns a median of $109,253 a year, about $55.29 an hour.
SOURCE·Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wage data·Open Government Licence – Canada·REVIEWED 2025
What $109,253 is actually worth
Move this wage out of Canada and it converts to $77,457. Spend it where it was earned and it buys what $86,676 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 109,253 / FX(CAD->USD) adjusted = CAD 109,253 / 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 | $144,149 | +32% |
| Northwest Territories | $139,130 | +27% |
| Yukon Territory | $132,866 | +22% |
| Northeast | $126,662 | +16% |
| Northwest | $124,448 | +14% |
| Stratford--Bruce Peninsula | $121,228 | +11% |
| London | $120,793 | +11% |
| Banff--Jasper--Rocky Mountain House | $118,758 | +9% |
| Edmonton | $118,758 | +9% |
| Athabasca--Grande Prairie--Peace River | $118,758 | +9% |
| North Coast | $118,560 | +9% |
| Nechako | $118,560 | +9% |
| Cariboo | $118,283 | +8% |
| Muskoka--Kawarthas | $117,967 | +8% |
| Thompson--Okanagan | $116,703 | +7% |
| Kingston--Pembroke | $116,525 | +7% |
| Kootenay | $116,465 | +7% |
| Northeast | $116,228 | +6% |
| Camrose--Drumheller | $115,418 | +6% |
| Prince Albert | $113,995 | +4% |
| Northern | $113,995 | +4% |
| Lower Mainland | $113,995 | +4% |
| Côte-Nord | $113,916 | +4% |
| Red Deer | $113,482 | +4% |
| British Columbia | $113,047 | +3% |
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 | $109,253 | The middle earner |
| Mean | $109,708 | Pulled up by top earners |
| 25th percentile | $93,109 | — |
| 75th percentile | $123,500 | — |
| Hourly | $55.29 | 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 does school principals and administrators of elementary and secondary education earn in Canada?
- The median is $109,253 a year, about $55.29 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. $109,253 converts to $77,457 at the exchange rate on 2026-07-29, and buys what $86,676 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
- Administrators - post-secondary education and vocational training $111,466
- Commissioned officers of the Canadian Armed Forces $108,739
- Commissioned police officers and related occupations in public protection services $135,850
- Fire chiefs and senior firefighting officers $123,777
- Government managers - economic analysis, policy development and program administration $125,278
- Government managers - education policy development and program administration $125,950
- Government managers - health and social policy development and program administration $121,603
- Managers in social, community and correctional services $86,865
- Other managers in public administration $119,568
