Public service employment has grown by 31 per cent

[McG]

Why can’t it be both?

Maybe, but nothing you offer substantiates that. “The public sector labour better be careful because they are not falling behind as quickly as private sector labour” does not substantiate that public sector is over compensated. Tobi Lütke is thrilled when the conversation is public vs private, because he wins from normalized lower wages. But the median tax payer is going to see nothing back from lower public sector pay.

The public sector needs to watch, if the grass gets too green ….

The single digit year old kid rages that someone shouldn’t have what they want. “It’s not fair that he got a cookie” … but after expending all their energy fighting to take the thing away and no energy on getting the thing for themselves, everyone is left the same or worse.

Instead of comparing private sector labour with public sector labour, compare labour to the executive and millionaire class. Instead of fighting on the same scraps, public and private labour should be asking why Zuckerberg is free to laugh at us all from onboard his private navy.

 

[Good2Golf]

A lot of Canadian society for some reason has a ‘Bucket of Crabs’ mindset…

 

[mariomike]

'Bucket of Crabs’ mindset…

Came up , after I retired , over Sick Bank Gratuity...

`I don't have it, so you shouldn't either,' instead of `you have it – why don't I?' It's not a race to the bottom.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Maybe, but nothing you offer substantiates that. “The public sector labour better be careful because they are not falling behind as quickly as private sector labour” does not substantiate that public sector is over compensated. Tobi Lütke is thrilled when the conversation is public vs private, because he wins from normalized lower wages. But the median tax payer is going to see nothing back from lower public sector pay.


The single digit year old kid rages that someone shouldn’t have what they want. “It’s not fair that he got a cookie” … but after expending all their energy fighting to take the thing away and no energy on getting the thing for themselves, everyone is left the same or worse.

Instead of comparing private sector labour with public sector labour, compare labour to the executive and millionaire class. Instead of fighting on the same scraps, public and private labour should be asking why Zuckerberg is free to laugh at us all from onboard his private navy.

The unionized PS Clerical staff do well wage wise, but anyone with a technical ticket or skill is making less than private, but will get better job security, pension and benefits than their private counterpart.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Maybe, but nothing you offer substantiates that. “The public sector labour better be careful because they are not falling behind as quickly as private sector labour” does not substantiate that public sector is over compensated. Tobi Lütke is thrilled when the conversation is public vs private, because he wins from normalized lower wages. But the median tax payer is going to see nothing back from lower public sector pay.


The single digit year old kid rages that someone shouldn’t have what they want. “It’s not fair that he got a cookie” … but after expending all their energy fighting to take the thing away and no energy on getting the thing for themselves, everyone is left the same or worse.

Instead of comparing private sector labour with public sector labour, compare labour to the executive and millionaire class. Instead of fighting on the same scraps, public and private labour should be asking why Zuckerberg is free to laugh at us all from onboard his private navy.

Except the public pays the public sectors wages, they are the employer. If they feel like the public sector is screwing them over on pay and performance then they might demand change to that.

Public sector can keep demanding more and will pretty much always get it, private sector is a much finer balancing act where if it is no longer profitable or worthwhile they will leave.

And increased wages in the public sector does effect everyone else. It means more taxes need to be raised to pay for it or more debt taken on. Seeing as the wages in the private sector aren’t going up as fast as the public sector that also means if there is a tax hike the private sector is effected more by it than the public sector is.

They made it clear during covid that the public sector was a golden egg that couldn’t be touched. Sending home most the employees with no work but full pay well the rest of us were stuck with CERB or EI shows how little regard they hold the Canadian public.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Do you have any thoughts on what you shared? This article seems to bemoan annual pay increments like those that are also built into CAF pay. Do you object to those?

From the first para you excluded:

So Fraser Institute identifies a wage gap between public and private, but it doesn’t substantiate its insinuation that public service is overpaid. We know cost of living has outstripped real wage growth. Why is the baseline assumption not that private sector is underpaying. I know the Rogerses, Sobeys, and Irvings are happy with this perspective because it defends them getting richer while paying their employees relatively less. But maybe we should consider it is the private sector that is underpaying.

Underpay and overpay are meaningless words without a cost measure, and the only mechanism we have for reliably measuring cost in a way that favours efficient allocation of resources is market pricing. Without putting all employees in the same market pricing situation, we almost can't know which are underpaid or overpaid. What we can know is what the market pricing is for employees subject to its conditions. Private enterprises pretty much define the benchmark by which everyone else less subject to market forces is underpaid or overpaid.

 

[McG]

Except the public pays the public sectors wages, they are the employer. If they feel like the public sector is screwing them over on pay and performance then they might demand change to that.

Public sector can keep demanding more and will pretty much always get it, private sector is a much finer balancing act where if it is no longer profitable or worthwhile they will leave.

And increased wages in the public sector does effect everyone else. It means more taxes need to be raised to pay for it or more debt taken on. Seeing as the wages in the private sector aren’t going up as fast as the public sector that also means if there is a tax hike the private sector is effected more by it than the public sector is.

Yeah, put that crab in the bucket.

They made it clear during covid that the public sector was a golden egg that couldn’t be touched. Sending home most the employees with no work but full pay well the rest of us were stuck with CERB or EI shows how little regard they hold the Canadian public.

Who is “they”?