Are you looking for a factory worker job in Canada? If so, then you need to know how much you can earn with that profession. If you find the job lucrative enough, then there are lots of manufacturing companies that are hiring factory workers to work in Canada. Moreover, the country itself is really open for migration, and plans to let hundreds of thousands of migrants in to help boost the economy.
Looking for the right company to apply as a factory worker in is easy with the help of agencies. Make sure that you connect with top recruitment agencies that are reputable. These companies are legitimate and help you go through the various steps and processes of getting a job in Canada. This article focuses on the salary of a factory worker in Canada.
Disclaimer: The information posted here is based on the personal experiences shared by the OFW in the video below. Please let this post serve as a guide only. If you have specific questions, you may ask the OFW by commenting on their video on their accounts.
The information presented below comes from a YouTube video which was made by randhe TV. The owner of the channel is an OFW factory worker working in Canada. In the video he shares some of the details when it comes to the salary of a factory worker, along with other details like deductions, expenses and more. Check out the original video by clicking on the link below:
The wonderfully edited video above was made because many of the YouTube channel’s subscribers commented and requested that he reveal his salary as a worker in Canada. As such, this 15-minute video was created, and he said that this was made to give Filipinos who are back home, or even those who are already in Canada, an idea regarding his salary.
In particular, he shares his salary as a common factory worker with overtime pay or without overtime pay.
Job History
Our YouTuber first arrived in Prince Edward Island, Canada back in 2019. He started working immediately once he arrived. He worked as a factory worker at a mussel plant.
The company that he got in is a seasonal company. Some years, the production is really strong. For one full year, the company could be getting lots and lots of mussels, so the factory workers for that period should work double time to take advantage of the high season.
Indeed, there are times when, due to lack of production, they don’t really have much to do in the factory. That’s why in the vlog he shared, he showed two pay slips. One pay slip is for an off-season, when they didn’t really do much, and another is a season pay slip.
Because there’s a lot to do during a high season, a season pay slip often features lots of overtime hours, which means the factory worker is earning lots of money during that time.
Off-Season Payslip
The pay slip is called a “Statement of Earnings and Deductions.” It contains the following features:
- Earnings – this shows the regular rate, overtime rate, total earnings, hours worked, and other details.
- Deductions – this shows deductions from the income tax and other deductions labeled C.P.P., E.I., miscellaneous deductions, and more.
- Net pay – this shows the net amount earned after subtracting total deductions from total earnings.
- Vacation accrual – this shows an accumulated number of vacation dollars, including current earned, current taken and untaken.
The pay period is also indicated in the pay slip. For this particular example shown by the YouTuber, the pay period is from October 13 – 19, 2019. He mentioned, again, that during this time, productivity was slow, so he didn’t have much overtime hours.
He gets paid on a weekly basis. Moreover, he mentioned that the minimum wage for employees in Canada is 12.85 CAD per hour. The good thing is that when he started in this company, his regular rate is actually higher than the minimum wage at 13.95 CAD per hour. Meanwhile, overtime rate is at 20.925 CAD per hour, or 1.5 times the regular rate.
Pay slip shows that he worked for 25.50 regular hours and 15 overtime hours. Overall, his total earnings for that week is 669.61 CAD.
You’re probably wondering why he worked overtime hours when, in fact, this was an off-season pay slip. The thing is, back then, he said they could save hours so that they can use it in the future. These 15 overtime hours were actually done in the past; he just saved them so that he could use it for this particular period when the season is low.
So in reality, during that week, he only really worked for 25.50 hours, which is really low when you think about it.
His gross income for that week is 669.61 CAD. However, the automatic deductions are quite high as well. He said that the percentage of deduction depends mainly on your location in Canada. In Prince Edward Island, he mentioned that tax is 15 percent of what you earn.
Here is a list of the deductions for that week:
- Income tax – 102.33 CAD
- C.P.P. (Canada Pension Plan) – 30.72 CAD
- E.I. (Employment Insurance) – 10.85 CAD
The total deductions are 143.90. This brings the net pay to 525.71 CAD. In Philippine Pesos, that is equivalent to around 20,400 PhP.
Aside from the net pay, he also earned 26.79 dollars of vacation accrual. During that time, his untaken accrual is already 543.92 CAD. He said he is saving this up for when he goes back home to the Philippines.
Minimum Wage Rate by Province or Territory
Our YouTuber also shared the minimum wage rates in Canada based on specific location. In the table, one can see that the minimum wage rate in Alberta is 15.00 CAD, in Ontario it is 15.70 CAD for home workers and 14.25 CAD for general workers, in British Columbia it’s 14.60 CAD, in Manitoba it’s 11.90 CAD, and in Prince Edward Island as mentioned above, it’s 12.85 CAD.
Basically, the minimum wage varies per province or territory, and it seems the rates are higher in the bigger, more urbanized locations, like Ontario for example. This information is really useful if you are thinking of applying for work in Canada. In fact, the high minimum wage is one of the main reasons why there are many Filipinos in Alberta.
Having said that, our YouTuber has talked to many Filipinos who moved from other parts in Canada to where he is right now, at Prince Edward Island. They said that even though their salaries are higher in the bigger provinces, their cost of living is also much higher.
Season Payslip
In this pay slip, you will see that they really put in lots of hours into work, including overtime hours. For this particular week, mussels are coming in at really large numbers.
The Statement of Earnings and Deductions for the pay period of May 24-30, 2020 reveals that he worked 55.00 regular hours and 13.75 overtime hours. In this particular company, any hours beyond 55 in a week is considered overtime.
Another great thing about this is that their regular, and as such overtime, rates also increased. Now the regular rate is 14.910 CAD per hour, and the overtime rate is 22.365 CAD per hour. Compared to his regular rate from the previous pay slip, this one is actually one dollar higher.
Therefore, for this particularly busy week, he earned a gross pay of 1,127.57 CAD.
There are deductions, of course, and the greater the earnings, the greater the deductions as well. His income tax this time shows as 237.87 CAD. His C.P.P. deduction is now at 55.73 CAD and his E.I. is at 17.82 CAD. The total deductions is 311.42 CAD.
Overall, his net pay for that one busy week is 816.15 CAD. At the current exchange rate, that is equivalent to around 31,600 Philippine Pesos. That’s just for one week! It is really high, but at the expense, of course, of having a sore body after working lots of hours in the factory.
In this pay slip, it also shows that his untaken vacation accrual, or vacation pay, is now at 1,541.84 CAD. One important thing that he mentioned is that they don’t really withdraw all of this amount in one big withdrawal. They only take a little portion off this amount because this pay, just like his other earnings, is taxable as well; at 15 percent.
Some people have the impression that life in Canada is easy; the work is easy, Filipinos in Canada have lots of money, but in reality, life is hard, according to the YouTuber. Having said that, one cannot generalize, because there are many Filipinos in Canada that have already established their lives.
In other words, many Filipinos working in Canada already have their own homes, cars, etc. But for him and many other workers, they really can’t afford to skip a week’s worth of work since the cost of living is quite expensive as well.
Having said that, he said that ordinary workers are better off in Canada than in the Philippines. If you’re just a factory worker in the Philippines, or if you’re just working in the mall, for example, it’s quite hard to save money. In Canada, if you’re just working in the factory, you’re salary is more than enough, and you even get a salary raise from time to time.