B.C. rejects teachers' new wage demands
ShepherdsDog @ Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:44 pm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... tions.html
As an educator, I'm usually in agreement with many of the demands made by teachers for fair pay and benefits. However, this little tidbit sorts of sticks in craw as being unreasonable
$1:
Lambert said teachers need the wage increase to keep up with the rising cost of living and to close the gap with their counterparts in Alberta and Ontario, who earn up to $20,000 more per year.
Ummm...they don't live or work in Alberta or Ontario, so why should theyhave the same wages as teachers in different provinces? They could move to these places and apply to teach there if they want the same pay. My degree in Education was issued from a BC university and I had a BC teaching certificate issued through the College, but I went to northern Manitoba for a job, after obtaining certification in Manitoba, because it paid better.
jeff744 @ Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:55 pm
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/01/17/bc-bctf-teachers-negotiations.html
As an educator, I'm usually in agreement with many of the demands made by teachers for fair pay and benefits. However, this little tidbit sorts of sticks in craw as being unreasonable
Ummm...they don't live or work in Alberta or Ontario, so why should theyhave the same wages as teachers in different provinces? They could move to these places and apply to teach there if they want the same pay. My degree in Education was issued from a BC university and I had a BC teaching certificate issued through the College, but I went to northern Manitoba for a job, after obtaining certification in Manitoba, because it paid better.
As an educator, I'm usually in agreement with many of the demands made by teachers for fair pay and benefits. However, this little tidbit sorts of sticks in craw as being unreasonable
$1:
Lambert said teachers need the wage increase to keep up with the rising cost of living and to close the gap with their counterparts in Alberta and Ontario, who earn up to $20,000 more per year.
Ummm...they don't live or work in Alberta or Ontario, so why should theyhave the same wages as teachers in different provinces? They could move to these places and apply to teach there if they want the same pay. My degree in Education was issued from a BC university and I had a BC teaching certificate issued through the College, but I went to northern Manitoba for a job, after obtaining certification in Manitoba, because it paid better.
If you teach in Vancouver I think you would be quite grateful to be able to keep up with other cities of similar (and sometimes smaller) size.
Lemmy @ Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:03 pm
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
Ummm...they don't live or work in Alberta or Ontario, so why should theyhave the same wages as teachers in different provinces?
That sounds an awful lot like the argument that "Blacks don't need the same salaries as whites because they don't need as much to live on as whites". Wages should be based on the Marginal Revenue Product of the the labour. One's rate of pay shouldn't have anything to do with one's expenses. Furthermore, it is my opinion, teachers in Ontario and Alberta are underpaid, so those in BC are seem doubly underpaid.
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
They could move to these places and apply to teach there if they want the same pay.
That's an option, to be sure, but wouldn't it be a good thing for the BC education system to provide an incentive for quality educators to want to stay where they want to live? Isn't it good for BC society to ATTRACT quality professionals rather than chasing them to greener pastures?
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
My degree in Education was issued from a BC university and I had a BC teaching certificate issued through the College, but I went to northern Manitoba for a job, after obtaining certification in Manitoba, because it paid better.
If I'm not mistaken, BC teachers teach 7 periods out of 8. Ontario and Alberta teachers teach 6 out of 8, PLUS they earn more. This is because the BC government broke the teachers' union. Public education is a lot cheaper in BC, but I'm not sure it's better. There are a lot of BCers teaching in Ontario right now. I doubt there are many Ontarians teaching in BC.
Yogi @ Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:27 pm
http://www.nucleuslearning.com/content/ ... oss-canada
Teacher Pay Scale Across Canada - Update for 2011.
The previous post on Teacher Pay Scale Across Canada lead to a huge discussion and many posts on the worth of teachers, etc. The reason for my post originally wasn't for that discussion - instead I wanted to show the inequality in pay across the provinces. Since the last time I posted, the scales have shifted a bit, many of the links I posted do not work anymore, and some provinces have renegotiated their teaching contracts. For this reason, someone asked me to update the article. So that's what I'm doing in this post.
Here are the teacher salaries in 2011. I'll keep it consistent with the previous article: I'm listing the salary I would have within jurisdictions in Canada that I wouldn't mind moving to - mostly cities. I will do it for a teacher with 8 years experience with a bachelor degree + 2 year teaching degree (this is about what I am). But if you want to check your salary in the given province, the link should point you in the right direction.
Here's the updated table for the salary scale across Canada:
Province Salary Year Link
British Columbia (Vancouver) $73,972 2011 BC's Local Collective Agreements (2006 - 2011)
Alberta (Calgary) $87,954 2011 Alberta Teachers' Association Collective agreements (2006 - 2012)
Saskatchewan $72,435 2010 Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation Collective Agreement (2007 - 2010)
Teachers in Saskatchewan are currently trying to negotiate another contract.
Manitoba (Winnipeg) $76,547 2010 MTS Collective Agreements
Ontario (Toronto) $83,865 2011 OSSTF Collective Agreement (2008 - 2012)
Quebec (Montreal) $52,435 2011 Montreal Teachers' Association Collective Agreement (2010-2011)
New Brunswick $72,536 2011 New Brunswick Teachers' Federation Agreement (2008-2012)
Nova Scotia $59,644 2010 NSTU Collective Agreement (2008-2010)
P.E.I. $64,608 2011 PEI Teachers' Federation Agreement (2010 - 2013)
Newfoundland $69,994 2011 NLTA Collective Agreement (2008-2012)
westmanguy @ Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:53 pm
Comparatively BC doesn't pay well.
If my dad hadn't retired 5 years ago he'd be earning close to 86,000 / year in Manitoba (but has 1 year under a doctorate degree in education so that played a factor).
Public sector employment pays well. There's a reason I'm gunning for an admin job in the fed. gov't some day 
PublicAnimalNo9 @ Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:24 am
westmanguy westmanguy:
Comparatively BC doesn't pay well.
Say what? Only Alberta ,Manitoba and Ontario pay more. Comparitively, BC pays more than most provinces based on the list Yogi posted.
Yogi @ Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:41 am
so here is a link to the scale as presented by the BCTF
http://www.bcpsea.bc.ca/documents/publi ... 202011.pdf
Benn @ Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:07 pm
Where does the "they make more there so we should make as much or more" argument end though? MY sister in law is a teacher here in Winnipeg and I once brought up the issue of the city just having one big school division and her response was something like "yeah but then we could not get as big raises like we can now by saying other divisions just got a raise or pay more like we do when our contracts some up. She says her union rep told her they play this game to keep wages high because it seems to work, likely the reason why a province with as much lower cost of living than BC can pay teachers more even when the supply of teachers (in urban areas) outstrips the demand.