FedSalary
Canada · Core Public Administration classification · FY 2026

SW-CHA-3 Classification Salary

Social Work — SW-CHA-3. Social Work.

2026 salary range
$89,371$108,214
Annual base in CAD (C$). Excludes locality pay, allowances, and performance bonuses.

Step-by-step pay table

StepAnnualMonthly (approx)Hourly (approx)
1$89,371$7,448$43
2$92,448$7,704$44
3$95,539$7,962$46
4$98,603$8,217$47
5$101,705$8,475$49
6$104,909$8,742$50
7$108,214$9,018$52
Hourly computed assuming 2,080 annual working hours. Actual hourly rates on official tables may differ slightly.

Beyond base: annual adjustments

Base tables understate real take-home. Canada federal employees receive the following annual adjustments on top of the SW-CHA-3 base shown above.

Conditional adjustmentFormulaIf applied (min)If applied (max)
Bilingual bonus
CA$800/year for employees in bilingual-imperative positions who maintain required French/English proficiency. Not automatic — role-dependent.
$800 flat+$800+$800

Frequently asked

How much does a SW-CHA-3 make in the Canada federal government?

A SW-CHA-3 in the Canada federal civil service earns between $89,371 and $108,214 per year in 2026, before locality adjustments, allowances, and bonuses. These figures are published by Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS).

Is the SW-CHA-3 classification the same in every agency?

The base pay scale is set centrally by Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) and applied uniformly across eligible federal employers, but agency-specific supplements, locality pay, and bargaining agreements can produce meaningful differences in take-home pay.

Where does this data come from?

Directly from Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) at https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/coll_agre/. Each page on FedSalary carries the retrieval date and a link back to the primary source.

Source: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) · Last verified 2026-04-17.