Skip to main content

Public sector wage settlements fall behind the private sector -- and inflation


Public sector wage settlements are falling behind the private sector's


Have broader public sector workers received larger than average wage settlements than private sector workers?  Have broader public sector settlements exceeded inflation?  

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has just released its report on settlements in August, so we now have data for most of 2014.  The data sheds some light on these questions.   

Broader public sector wage settlements within the provincial government’s domain (i.e. public sector settlements excluding federal and municipal settlements) have significantly increased since last year’s stingy 0.3% average annual settlement.  

Click here for NEW UPDATE: Collective Bargaining In Ontario: New Trends, New possibilities, May 2015

Provincial broader public sector settlements average 1.3% so far in 2014.  Nevertheless, they are on track to be lower than private sector settlements for the fifth year in a row, as private sector settlements have averaged 1.8% in 2014, half a percent higher.

% Increase
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Average %
Settlements
Provincial BPS
1.9
1.4
1.1
0.3
1.3
1.20

Municipal
2.5
2.3
1.5
2.2
1.5
2.00

Federal
1.7
1.7
1.7
1.8
1.5
1.68

Private
2.0
1.9
1.2
2.3
1.8
1.84
Economics
Inflation
2.5
3.1
1.4
1.1
2.5
2.12

Real GDP Growth
3.4
2.2
1.3
1.3
2.1
2.06

Nominal GDP Growth
5.2
4.0
3.0
2.7
3.5
3.68
Sources: 2013 and 2014 Budgets for growth and August MOL Collective Bargaining Highlights for settlements and inflation. 2014 inflation is 12 months ending August 2014.









On an annual basis, private sector settlements have averaged 1.84% since 2010, while broader provincial public sector settlements have averaged 1.20%.  That means private sector settlements have averaged 0.64% more per year.

Broader provincial public sector settlements are also on track to fall behind the annual inflation rate for the fifth year in a row.  Here the gap is larger, with Ontario inflation averaging 2.12% annually  for 2010 through (August) 2014.  That contrasts to the average annual provincial public sector wage settlement of 1.20%. 

In other words provincial public sector settlements have, on average, trailed the annual inflation rate by 0.92% each year for the last five years. That is a shortfall of almost 1% per year for five years -- quite a gap. 

This, of course, flies in the face of those who  would like to portray provincial public sector workers as receiving rich settlements. The reality for the last five years is that broader provincial public sector settlements have fallen well short of the annual inflation rate and that private sector settlements have been significantly higher. 

Municipal public sector settlements have done a little better – averaging 2% per year (although this is still short of the inflation average).  Municipal government settlements with police and fire have played a role here.  

Also notable - -the advantage of municipal settlements over provincial broader public sector settlements is at the lowest level since 2010:  municipal settlements in 2014 averaged 1.5%,  only 0.2% higher than broader provincial public sector settlements.  Last year the gap was a huge 1.9%.   

Federal public sector settlements have done better than provincial broader public sector settlements, but worse than municipal settlements and private sector settlements, with an annual average of 1.68% since 2010.   Stephen Harper has increased public sector wages more than the Ontario Liberals. Even so, in 2014, federal settlements have averaged 1.5%, very similar to Ontario provincial broader pubic sector and municipal settlements. 

Since 2010 there has been significant real economic growth, over 10% counting projected growth for 2014. (And, yes, even if we go back and include the recession years of 2008 and 2009, Ontario has still seen significant economic growth - 7% in real growth.)   

 Arguably, however, nominal economic growth (a measure combining both real economic growth and inflation) is a more relevant marker for wage increases as wages are paid in nominal dollars -- wages decline in value as inflation eats into their value. So workers need wage increases to offset inflation as well as wage increases to get their share of economic growth.  So it is notable that nominal economic growth has averaged over three times the nominal annual wage settlements in the provincial broader public sector: 3.68% versus 1.20%. Nominal economic growth has doubled annual private sector increases.  

 But, far from settlements keeping up with both inflation and economic growth, for the last five years, inflation alone outpaces settlements.  

Bottom line: significant economic growth over the last five years means some people are getting their mitts on a lot more cold hard cash -- even while public and private sector settlements fall short of annual inflation rates.

Employers have successfully used the economic crisis of 2008/9 to set wages back. But declining wages need not be the case.  The last five years are quite different than the previous five years (2004-2009), when public and private sector settlements usually exceeded the annual inflation rate.  From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Canadian union settlements in both the public and private sectors often followed the inflation rate in the year of settlement. Before the late 1970s, real wage gains were also achieved.

Notably, Statistics Canada reports Ontario inflation at 2.6% for the year ending September 2014, much higher than it has been since 2011.  So public sector settlements may lose more ground to inflation in the short term. Private sector settlements may, however, be more responsive if inflation keeps on  a higher track.   

 Photo: See Li -- October 18 rally: "Britain Needs a Pay Rise"

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations...
Post a Comment
Read more

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staffing.   Less and less of hospital spending is on staff.   Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development.  It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staff per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staffing capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another...
Post a Comment
Read more

The long series of failures of private clinics in Ontario

For many years, OCHU/CUPE has been concerned the Ontario government would transfer public hospital surgeries, procedures and diagnostic tests to private clinics. CUPE began campaigning in earnest against this possibility in the spring of 2007 with a tour of the province by former British Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, who talked about the disastrous British experience with private surgical clinics. The door opened years ago with the introduction of fee-for-service hospital funding (sometimes called Quality Based Funding). Then in the fall of 2013 the government announced regulatory changes to facilitate this privatization. The government announced Request for Proposals for the summer of 2014 to expand the role of "Independent Health Facilities" (IHFs).  With mass campaigns to stop the private clinic expansion by the Ontario Health Coalition the process slowed.   But it seems the provincial Liberal government continues to push the idea.  Following a recent second...
Post a Comment
Read more