Public sector also enjoys greater job security, pension benefits
Government employees in Quebec received 9.2 per cent higher wages on average than comparable workers in the private sector in 2018. And they also got much more generous non-wage benefits, says a new study by think-tank the Fraser Institute.
After controlling for factors like gender, age, marital status, education, tenure, size of firm, job permanence, immigrant status, industry, occupation, and full- or part-time status, the authors found that Quebec’s public sector (federal, provincial, and local) enjoyed a 9.2 per cent wage premium, on average, over the private sector. When the wage difference between unionized and non-unionized workers is accounted for, the wage premium for the government sector declines to 5.8 per cent.
In looking at non-wage benefits, the institute found 95.1 per cent of government workers in Quebec are covered by a registered pension plan, compared to 22 per cent of private-sector workers. Of those covered by a registered pension plan, 95.4 per cent of government workers enjoyed a defined benefit pension compared to 53.8 per cent of private-sector workers.
“Bringing government-sector compensation in line with the private sector would not only help governments in Quebec control spending without reducing services, it would also maintain fairness for taxpayers,” says Vincent Geloso, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute. “Of course, governments in Quebec should provide competitive compensation to attract qualified employees, but clearly wages and benefits in the government sector are out of step with the private sector.”
Absenteeism, retirement differences
On average, public sector workers were absent from their work 16.9 days in 2018, compared to 10.2 days for the private sector, says the report. And public workers were more than 10 times less likely to get sacked (0.2 per cent) compared to private sector workers (2.3 per cent).
Public sector workers in the province also retired three years earlier compared to their counterparts.
In writing the Comparing Government and Private Sector Compensation in Quebec study, researchers used data from the 2018 Labour Force Survey sample for Quebec, which consists of 108,750 individuals.
In 2018, Canadians reported a median annual income of $38,350 in 2018, up by 1.4 per cent from $37,830 the previous year, according to Statistics Canada. The median after-tax income of Canadian families and unattached individuals stood at $61,400 for 2018, slightly higher compared to the $60,900 recorded in the previous 12 months, according to the government.
