Market intelligence
What the market actually pays
Through our partnership with OnlyDentalJobs we can see what every office in a city is advertising for each role, not just what we charge for coverage. That is the number your next offer gets read against, so we put it in front of you before you write it.
7,935
Postings analysed
Every advertised role behind the averages.
9
Cities tracked
Priced separately, because a market is a city and not a province.
5
Roles benchmarked
Hygiene, assisting, ortho, reception, and associates.
13/hr
Widest hygiene spread
The middle half of Seattle postings covers this much ground.
Pay by city, role by role
Each bar is the middle half of what a city advertises, with the average marked inside it. The spread is the part worth reading: it tells you how much room an offer has before it stops being competitive.
Hourly, CAD
Vancouver
British Columbia
$61.50
412 posts
Calgary
Alberta
$59.50
287 posts
Victoria
British Columbia
$58.50
118 posts
Edmonton
Alberta
$57.50
203 posts
Ottawa
Ontario
$57.50
176 posts
Toronto
Ontario
$56.50
631 posts
Illustrative only. The figures above are a representative example, not current rates, and they aren’t drawn from live data. Real benchmarks for your city are in the platform, so sign up to see real rates. Canadian and US figures are shown separately and never converted, so the two are never ranked against each other.
Where rates moved
Average change against the same period a year earlier, across every city that prices the role.
Hygienist
+3.9%
Assistant
+3.2%
Ortho asst
+2.6%
Reception
+2.5%
Associate
+2.0%
A rising average is not the same as a raise. It is what the market is advertising, which is the number your next offer is read against.
What to do with it
Benchmark before the offer goes out
Set a number against what your city advertises rather than against the last person you hired. It is a shorter conversation when the offer already sits where the market is.
Read the spread, not just the midpoint
A wide band means the market hasn't settled and there is room to move. A tight one means there is a going rate, and an offer under it sits unanswered.
Price the role you are actually filling
An ortho assistant and a general assistant are different markets. So are Toronto and Ottawa. Averaging across either one hides the number you needed.
Where the data comes from
OnlyDentalJobs runs a dental hiring platform, so it sees what offices across a city are advertising rather than what any one agency charges. We aggregate those postings by role and by city and open the result up to the practices we work with, because an office hiring against a number someone guessed is how a search stalls for a month.
This is separate from our own rate card. What WORKFORCE charges for temp coverage is published on the professionals side of the site and is set by us. What you see above is the wider market, which is a different question and usually a different number.