Minimum wage employees across Nunavut, including those in Arviat, will see their pay rise to $20.17 per hour starting September 1, 2026. The Government of Nunavut confirmed the increase, which lifts the current $19.75 rate by 42 cents an hour, for a 2.13 percent jump. The territory maintains the highest minimum wage in Canada because of the steep cost of living across the North. For a full-time worker in Arviat, this means roughly $73 more each month before deductions, a modest but welcome boost when a simple trip to the grocery store can cost 50 percent more than in southern Canada, according to a recent food price survey.
The annual adjustment follows a formula the Government of Nunavut introduced last year that ties the minimum wage to the territory’s economic reality. It calculates the new rate by blending the previous year’s percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for Iqaluit and the change in average hourly wages across Nunavut. This system ensures the rate keeps pace with inflation and broad wage trends, but it also contains a built-in safeguard: if the math ever points to a decrease, the minimum wage will simply stay the same. Rates are announced each year by July 31 and take effect every September 1.
For small communities such as Arviat, where about 2,864 people live, the raise hits both family budgets and employer bottom lines. The North West Company runs the Northern store, which is one of the largest employers in town with 91 workers, 92 percent of them Indigenous, according to 2017 data. Every employee earning the minimum wage will automatically get the bump under Nunavut’s labour rules, which apply the same rate to all workers regardless of age. The predictable schedule lets local businesses plan staffing costs a year in advance while giving workers some certainty about their take-home pay.
