Taxes and Income

My latest Brandon Sun column Our Citizenship, Paid For By Our Taxes was on different tax rates for Manitoba and its closest neigboring provinces. Although taxes can be important, other issues - such as availability of jobs and overall quality of life in different places -are often more crucial.

One interesting point that I didn’t have space for in the column is the real difference in the income levels of married people as compared to single people. Looking at Statistics Canada data, one can see why some say that families headed by a single mom are the main impoverished group in Canada.

At first glace, this would seem to be obvious: two earners would make more income than one. As well, anyone who is part of a married couple can relate how economically advantageous this can be, for example, one can be going to school while the other works – thus raising the income potential of both for the long-term, and so on.

But the statistics show that even more seems to be going on: two earner families with children make much more than the expected twice as much as one earner families. (Income is 2005 “market” income, such as employment, and excludes government transfers.) Single mom families make an average of $30,900 per year. Two parent families make on average much more than twice as much: $83,900 annually. Even when there is only one earner in a two parent family, they have an income of $56,600 – much more than the single mom family. (One last statistic: single dad families have an income of $58,300.) See Statistics Canada.