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Federal employee compensation reveals Canada a two-tiered society

Author: Nick Bergamini 2012/12/11

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has released a report today with shocking numbers on the overly generous compensation of federal government employees. While real wages in Canada have remained stagnant over the last decade, federal government employees have enjoyed guaranteed wage increases, taxpayer guaranteed pensions and benefits that few Canadians could ever imagine. The report reveals that Canada is increasingly becoming a two-tiered society, with unionized government employees playing by different rules than the rest of us. Here are some of the key figures for 2011-2012:

  • $114,100 average compensation per employee 
  • $43.8B spent on compensation by federal government 
  • 70.1 per cent of federal operating expenses went to employee salaries and benefits
  • Compensation "vastly" outpaced Canada wide wage increases and increases in other levels of governments
  • The feds employee 375,000 people
This occurred while Canada experienced record setting deficit levels. Meanwhile, according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, average real wages in Canada have gone up only .76 per cent annually since 1997. Clearly, federal employees and the politicians who decide how much to pay them are divorced from reality.

More to come. 

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