Americans say they would need to earn an average salary of $440,000 per year to feel rich, while higher-taxed Canadians feel they could live it up $296,000, according to the fifth annual ADP Payday Poll.

“While some people think that Canadians and Americans are similar, our feel-rich tipping points tell a different story,” says Laura Ramsay, director, marketing, ADP Canada, a payroll services firm.

A slim majority (54%) of Canadians say they are now richer than their parents were at the same age, but this number has declined since 2005, when 59% Canadians said they were richer than their parents.

Results vary by region: A 20% gap separates the regions that feel richest from those that feel poorest: Atlantic Canadians (69%) and Albertans (68%) are the most likely to say they are richer than their parents were, while only 47% of Quebecers say the same.

Out of all the regions, Ontarians are most likely (20%) to say that they are poorer than their parents were at the same stage of life, with Quebeckers (18%) and those from BC (18%) close behind.

The poll also revealed that 36% of Canadians don’t even know their annual take-home pay, perhaps explaining our population’s more laid-back wealth aspirations.

For the survey, a total of 1m005 respondents were interviewed by telephone during the period: August 6th – 10th, 2008. The margin of error is +/-3.1% at 95%.