Nurse / RN Salary in Canada

Province Comparison

These are total earnings actually disclosed — including overtime, shift premiums and retroactive pay, not base salary. Each province only publishes public-sector staff earning above a set threshold (Ontario $100,000, BC $75,000, Manitoba $85,000, Alberta ~$155,176), so anyone paid less is excluded and the averages skew high — most of all for roles whose standard pay sits near that threshold.

Negotiated base salary — standard general-duty RN

What the collective-agreement wage grid actually pays, before overtime — the disclosed averages above are not base salary.

Contract wage grid, entry step to top step, before overtime, shift premiums or responsibility pay — this is what a typical registered nurse is actually paid. The disclosed averages above fold in overtime and only count nurses over each province’s disclosure threshold, so they run above the grid. Terminology note: in BC, Alberta and Manitoba an “RPN” is a Registered Psychiatric Nurse paid on the RN scale, while in Ontario “RPN” means Registered Practical Nurse (an LPN, paid well below RN).