c_canuk said:
My belief is that the CAF is able to find recruits not because it pays market rates, instead I feel recruits sign up because they believe in the job. If there were Canadians clamouring for our compensation package for the exact same work requirements, we wouldn't have several red trades and you know it.
To hire someone off the street to do my job today - with the job requirements and expectations, you would have to pay skilled oil patch worker rates if not higher. The Civilian equivalents that I work beside get paid CS2 and above and those designations do not suffer the work expectations I listed above. I feel you are grossly underestimating the value of what we bring to the table.
My point about the PMQs was that way back, because we were paid the same across the board regardless of local cost of living, institutions were set up to level the playing field. Those institutions are largely gone now, but we're still paid the same across the board. If the reasons to remove those support mechanisms was to avoid affecting the local economy, the same argument could be to pay us based on estimates to replace the entire CAF with off the street Canadians with the same skill sets for the same job requirements.
PLD is supposed to fix that problem, however it's not managed effectively. It seems quite petty for the federal government to chip away at these pieces of our compensation under the guise of market fairness, while ignoring the largest part of the CAF's effect on the local economy.
It seems the opinion of some is that we have to tighten our belts so we're fair to the locals, but when it's the federal governments turn to play fair, they just get to keep more money and play dumb.
Way way way back - long before either you or I joined. Pay and compensation for the Canadian Forces was drastically overhauled in the 1960s. Pay went up dramatically, the CFSA was introduced and PMQs ceased to be part of the equation. DND/CFHA is, and has been for at least 45 years, strictly a landlord offering an option. PMQs are not a benefit, nor should they be. Charging market rates for them is not just about protecting the local marketplace, it's also about being fair to those members who do not live in PMQs. By the way, DND/CFHA has no control over what determines the market rate. That is set by CMHC.
Yes, there are red occupations, but these tend to be anomalies. However, the CS occupations in the Public Service are also an anomaly. To their great fortune, their union has managed to successfully negotiate a fairly high salary,
for the moment.
This is because there is a shortage and they're in high demand. The marketplace, however, tends to seek equilibrium and in time, there will be more of them and their bargaining power will be reduced, resulting in less growth in their wages (PS pay rates generally don't go down, but their rate of increase can slow down). What you don't seem to be grasping is that your pay (as well as mine) includes an element of their current good fortune. The trouble is that boatswains, stewards, RMS clerks and infantry soldiers also reap the same reward. Here's the kicker though, when CS pay rates begin to decline and some other PS occupation gets a boost because of market demand, we will also reap that benefit while the effect on us of a CS slow down in pay is minimal. By and large, military compensation is greater than that in the Public Service for the same level of responsibility, notwithstanding that there are exceptions. At this point in time, one of those exceptions happens to be right in your face, but most of us are doing pretty well. Finally, don't forget that compensation is not just about salary. It includes pension benefits, leave policy, job security, etc and even lifestyle and adventure. Even if our salaries are lower than those available in the private sector or the Public Service, in my mind at least, the other benefits more than make up for it.
Written while in a chalet overlooking the French Alps where I am currently only because of my membership in the CF...
