Under the proposed Express Entry reforms, candidates in higher-earning occupations are set to be prioritized for selection as Canadian permanent residents in the future.

The proposed “high-wage” occupation factor in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) would award extra points to candidates in jobs paying 2x, 1.5x, and/or 1.3x the annual median wage.

Which occupations could qualify under the high-wage factor? A CIC News estimate

The official list will be based on Statistics Canada data and Employment and Social Development Canada’s Job Bank, which tracks median hourly wages by National Occupational Classification (NOC) code across Canada.

Since this is in the proposal phase as of now, an official list of qualifying occupations has not yet been published by IRCC.

However, based on Statistics Canada and ESDC’s most recent Job Bank median hourly wage figures (2025 data) — compared against the most recent data on Canada‘s national median wage (2024 data) by NOC code — CIC News has produced the following illustrative estimate of sample occupations which may fall under each tier.

Note that this is an estimate only, not a complete list, and not intended as a prediction of what occupations will be included in IRCC’s final list.

Tier	Occupation	NOC Code
2x national median wage	Specialists in surgery	31101
	General practitioners and family physicians	31102
	Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine	31100
	Senior managers – financial, communications and other business services	00012
	Government managers – education policy development and program administration	40012
	Government managers – economic analysis, policy development and program administration	40011
	Senior government managers and officials	00011
	Petroleum engineers	21332
	Computer and information systems managers	20012
	Architecture and science managers	20011