CostMine has just sent me a copy of their most recent publication, namely the 2011 Survey of Canadian Mine Salaries, Wages, and Benefits.
As aways this is a mine of information about what people earn on mines–in this case Canadian mines. In this posting I summarize a bit about the average wage ($ per hour) for selected job titles. Keep in mind these are averages across the country. The full survey lists ranges across the country and provides ranges and averages for various regions and mine-types across the country. Also included in the full volume are the wages for the individual mines responding to the survey—thanks to those mines for providing that information.
First the country-wide wages ($ per hour, no benefits included)
Surface Mines
- Electrician = 33.39
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Mechanic = 33.30
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Shovel/Dragline operator = 33.75
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Heavy equipment operator = 31.35
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Drill operator 32.08
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Production truck driver 28.07
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Labourer 24.67
Underground Mines
- Electrician $32.73
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Mechanic 31.69
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Miner 28.55
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Underground drill operator 30.36
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Underground equipment operator 29.66
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Underground labourer 23.89
Milling Operations
- Mill equipment operator 30.39
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Mill labourer 24.52
As in years past, the electrician is the top wage earner, and the laborer is the low wage earner. Certainly the electricians in our Vancouver town-house complex, and who work in the movie industry, earn enough to buy fancy cars, take trips to Las Vegas, and generally live a good life style.
I suspect the oil sands mines of Alberta account for the even higher wage of Dragline Operators. Although when I watch from afar how smoothly and skillfully those great machines are moved, I cannot but wonder why their operators don’t get paid even more.
I am surprised that the underground drill and equipment operators get paid less than their surface mine counterparts. Again that may be due to a skew from the oil sands open pits, or maybe the coal mines. I shall have to examine the CostMine data more carefully to report. The following statistics tend to bear me out on this one.
Labourer (Surface Mine)
- Eastern Region: Range = 14.00 – 28.05; Average = 22.97
- Western Region: Range = 20.10 – 40.41; Average = 25.80
Meanwhile, ask your HR person or union folk to get the full report and make a detailed comparison between what you earn and what others in your region earn. Let me know if you find major discrepancies.
Thank you for conducting research in mining industry. It was surprising to me that miner underground are general paid less than their coworkers above the ground. One would expect that due to the higher danger concern along with the health and moral hazard, the underground workers should get premium. However, this does not seem to be taken place, if you could elaborate on this cause it would be highly appreciated.
Thank you.