Canada raises high-wage LMIA thresholds by up to $3 per hour starting July 17

Wage floors climb $0.92 to $3 depending on province

Canada raised the hourly wage thresholds used to sort Temporary Foreign Worker Program applications into high- and low-wage streams, with increases of roughly $1 to $3 per hour taking effect for LMIAs received on or after July 17, 2026, Employment and Social Development Canada confirmed.

The threshold is calculated as the provincial or territorial median hourly wage plus 20%. Jobs offered at or above it are processed under the high-wage stream. Anything below drops into the low-wage stream, which carries stricter obligations around transportation, housing and caps on foreign worker share.

Before and after, by province

The jump from the prior schedule, which applied to LMIAs filed between June 27, 2025 and July 16, 2026, varies widely by region:

• Alberta: $36.00 to $37.50
• British Columbia: $36.60 to $38.40
• Ontario: $36.00 to $36.92
• Quebec: $34.62 to $36.00
• Nunavut: $42.00 to $45.00
• Yukon: $44.40 to $45.60

Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI and Saskatchewan land in the $1 to $2 range. Nunavut's $3 jump is the steepest in the country.

The threshold itself isn't a wage mandate. Employers must still pay the prevailing wage, defined as the highest of the Job Bank median for the occupation and location, the wage paid to current Canadian or permanent resident staff in the same role or other reliable labour market data.

Who has to act now

Employers with LMIA applications in the pipeline need to check which side of the new threshold their offered wage falls on. A job that cleared the high-wage stream at $36.00 in Ontario last week now needs to hit $36.92 to stay there or it gets rerouted into low-wage with the added compliance load. In British Columbia, the $1.80 gap is enough to push borderline offers into the stricter stream unless the employer bumps pay.

Foreign workers already in Canada on closed work permits tied to a positive LMIA aren't losing status, but employers doing annual prevailing-wage reviews, typically by Jan. 1 after Job Bank's fall update, can't drop pay below the LMIA-approved figure and may owe raises when medians move up. Applicants weighing offers should confirm the wage clears the new floor before the paperwork goes in, since anything filed on or after July 17 is measured against the higher number. More on employment pathways in the Canada guide.