CAF Ranks & Pay
Understand base pay, specialist scales and benefits · Reserve service and daily pay
Every rank in the Canadian Armed Forces, with its equivalent in the other two elements on the same row. Select a rank to see what the role involves, or select its pay to see the incentive levels inside that range — including the specialist, Special Forces, search and rescue, pilot, legal and medical scales. Figures are Regular Force monthly salary, effective April 1, 2025.
| NATO | Canadian Army | Royal Canadian Navy | Royal Canadian Air Force | Monthly pay |
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Ranks on the same row are equivalent in seniority and pay across the three elements. NATO codes are the standard OF (officer) and OR (other ranks) scale used for comparison between allied militaries, taken from the STANAG 2116 comparative tables. They are a comparison aid, not an official CAF designation.
Four things in that column look like mistakes and are not. Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant both sit at OF‑1, which spans both subaltern ranks in most NATO forces. The ladder starts at OF‑9 because OF‑10 is the five‑star level and Canada's General is four‑star. OR‑1 is unused: the non‑commissioned ranks run from OR‑9 down to OR‑2. And Corporal and Master Corporal share OR‑4, because QR&O chapter 3 and the CAF's promotion instruction both state that master corporal is an appointment held by a corporal, not a rank of its own — so a scale that maps ranks maps it where the rank sits. Some comparative tables show it at OR‑5 instead. It keeps its own row here because it carries its own pay increment.
If you serve part-time Reserve Class A and B use separate daily pay tables. Class C uses the Regular Force monthly tables and can include operational or non-operational service. Do not estimate daily pay from a fixed percentage of monthly salary. Reserve Force pay by rank · checked 2026-09-06
The 68 unique pay scales used here were compared with the official Regular Force and Class C monthly tables on 15 September 2026. Their effective date remains 1 April 2025; the review date does not change that effective date. Specialist, Special Forces, and SAR scales are shown on each rank where they apply. Not official — always confirm current rates with canada.ca.