In our case, our sector invests more than $6 billion every year in R and D. That's very significant. The sector is growing faster than the national economy. The pay rates in our industry are about 50% higher than in the rest of the economy. We're the demonstration that an R and D and innovation-based path is the path to success.
That being said, we have a very good program with the SR and ED program; it compares well, in international comparisons. Some of the international comparisons in the Science, Technology and Innovation Council report and others that are being collected by the OECD show that some other countries may not have as good a tax credit program, and others are improving their programs and making them more refundable. Many countries provide direct help to R and D.
In the U.S., for example, their national tax credit program is not that great, but as a country it provides more direct assistance to R and D than any other. As a result, when people make decisions, which they can nowadays, to put an important lab anywhere in the world, we face a couple of challenges that cause us to say, let's look at our SR and ED program, to either improve it or complete it with something else.
Some companies are not allowed to factor in the SR and ED tax credits in trying to get a decision to locate something in Canada, because the credits may reduce the tax you pay in Canada, and, because of tax treaties, increase the tax you pay at headquarters. Some companies are reaching mid-size of a fantastic growth phase and hit up against the ceiling at which they're no longer qualified for the refundable 35% tax credit and go down to 20% non-refundable. It's causing them to question whether they should pause their growth, or things like that.
So there are things that we can and should do to look at improving this program.