The gap between government employees and the rest of the working world is widening, says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).
In response, the CTF has launched a campaign advocating for changes to public sector pensions and salaries. Quoting data from Statistics Canada, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the Fraser Institute, and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the CTF says the average weekly earnings of government workers has increased from $756.01 to $1,023.20 from 2001 to 2011 (an increase of 35.3%), while average weekly earnings for the private sector have only increased from $598.81 to $777.69 (an increase of 29.9%).
The CTF also says the number of government employees covered by a workplace pension plan continues to increase while fewer public sector employers offer workplace pensions. According to the CTF, 75.5% of government employees had pension plans in 1977 and 86.2% had plans in 2009 (an increase of 10.7%), while only 35.2% of private sector employees had pension plans in 1977 and 25.3% had pension plans in 2009 (a decrease of 9.9%).
With respect to DB plans, the CTF says 74.8% of public sector employees held DB plans in 1977, compared to 81% in 2009 (an increase of 6.2%), while in the private sector, only 31.4% held DB plans in 1977, compared to 14.2% in 2009 (a decrease of 17.2%).
“Government workers are clearly getting a better deal than everybody else,” says Gregory Thomas, federal director of the CTF. “And what’s worse, governments are going into hock, borrowing billions to maintain and extend this wage gap.”
The CTF is calling on the government to control public sector salaries and phase out DB plans.