Why is median income higher in the Yukon and Northwest Territories than the rest of the country?

Question

I am from Omaha, Nebraska and attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The question was posed to our class after seeing statistics of median income for Canadians. The median was around 50,000, but in the territories it was from 65,000 to 83,000. Why is this?

Answer 1

I have been puzzled about the same sort of phenomenon in the US. see http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2007/08/07/united-states-household-income-map/
Economic theory tells us the wages depend on the supply and demand for labor, and we know the some skills are in shorter supply compared to demand. Therefore location of certain types of jobs would account for part of the difference. However this does not seem sufficient to account for the whole picture of income variations with location. Another possibility would be that the cost of living varies with locality, and what worker really care about is standard of living so the will accept low wages were living cost are low. But low living cost are a result of low labor costs, so this argument is circular.

Answer 2

The execs at big industrial companies up there make quite a bit of money. That's the same in every other part of the country (execs at companies raking in cash). But the difference is that the population of the North is very low. So there's a higher percentage of high-earners compared to other places.

Answer 3

Because The United States has a much larger consumer base and exports much to Canada than vice versa, taking their base. Where you live most people have money because the economy is generally fixed in place due to the place most products are from around your territory.

Answer 4

Personaly I think it is because the territories have a hard time getting people. So they bring up the income to draw doctors there.
But yet againt hat is my personal appion and it might not be right.