States employees are paid significantly less than their counterparts in the private service and other public administrations, says a newly released study from the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ).
Taking into account salaries, benefits and hours worked, all in all, provincial employees are paid 8.3 per cent less than those working for companies with 200 or more employees.
When solely considering wages, there is an 11.7 per cent gap in compensation in favor of Quebecers working in the private and publicly administered sectors as compared to provincial state employees.
The ISQ compares public workers’ pay with those holding equivalent jobs in the private sector. According to the study, a technician working in the public service will earn $ 50,426 on average, while the same professional working in the private sector is paid up to $ 57,586.
“Of course, part of the problem lies in the fact that between 2009 to 2012, raises by the Quebec government were rather low,” says Patrice Gauthier, director of labor and compensation statistics at the ISQ, to The Canadian Press.
“We are talking about 0.5 per cent in 2010, 0.75 per cent in 2011 and one percent in 2012 while raises were higher in the rest of the market,” adds Gauthier.
The ISQ gathered these results by comparing 77 benchmark jobs in each sector, such as manual workers, technicians, health and social service employees as well as staff within the education system. Some sectors were excluded from the study, namely agriculture and construction.