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WENDY ELLIOTT: The divide between rich and poor continues to grow

Recent headlines told us that wages in this province were growing much faster than in Canada in general. After accounting for inflation, numbers from Statistics Canada placed Nova Scotia at the top of the heap.

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In 2025, CBC analysts said that half of workers in Nova Scotia made $27.37 an hour or less, a 4.6 per cent increase from the median wage in 2024 after adjusting for inflation. By comparison, wages in nine other provinces, excluding the territories, grew just 0.5 per cent.

A year ago, the bean counters had indicated that in 2021 and 2022, many workers in this province essentially took a pay cut as wages did not rise as fast as prices. Then they reported that the trend was reversing.

The median Nova Scotia wage in 2023 and 2024 grew faster than inflation. Dalhousie labour economist Lars Osberg called that good news, but noted that there was a mask over the disproportionate and unequal impact inflation had.

He made his observation knowing that low-wage workers pay a higher proportion of their wages on necessary things like groceries and rent, and that’s where prices have shot up the........

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