General considerations

First, recommended reading is this Statistique Quebec report from 2021, which finds that the municipal governments of Quebec tend to pay the best and require less hours on the job than either the federal and especially the provincial governments (here’s the 2023 version of this same report, en français seulement).

According to this same 2021 report, both the federal and the Quebec governments tend to pay better than the private sector, both unionized and non-unionized, in terms of the overall compensation, relative to the total number of hours worked. The federal government pays about 9% better on average than the Quebec government (note: municipal pays nearly 30% better than the provincial government and averages around 28 hours a week on the job). Note that the private sector offers higher salaries, but demands more hours to earn it. In other words, the public service pays more per hour worked, particularly in global benefits.

Second, although the municipal government pays better overall, the Federal government offers more flexibility in terms of where one can work within Canada, the most variety, and more opportunities to work abroad as well.