Greedy teachers? Check out this chart and draw your own conclusion

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      You can click the chart above to enlarge it.

      By the way, you're not likely to find it on the Ministry of Education website.

      Comments

      73 Comments

      Steve y

      Sep 7, 2014 at 11:22am

      So all public workers are greedy. This is nothing new. Compare this against the general private sector and we will see what greed looks like

      Kim T

      Sep 7, 2014 at 11:47am

      This chart doesn't mean anything unless I knew what each occupation's current wage level is. It is possible that the teachers are already paid at a higher level reletive to others,a 1% increase may just be fair. This article is intentionally trying to skew public opinion with lack of information, what a shame!

      john

      Sep 7, 2014 at 12:38pm

      I don't have a problem at all with the teachers' wage demands, nor do most others I would think. But a little blurb on nothing but a percentage for this particular item while ignoring every other issue, all of which add huge dollars to the equation, adds nothing to the discussion. Write an article that includes the cost of additional benefits demands, over and above what's already in place, and then compare all of that total package to the private sector (nice cherry-picking with the steel workers and machinists, the only two non-government funded groups included in the chart,who are both quite specialized and make up next to zero percent comparatively speaking of any work force), and then perhaps we can more realistically hash over the facts- all of them.

      bryan

      Sep 7, 2014 at 1:01pm

      That chart is extremely misleading. There's nothing at all there about benefits (or signing bonus), and it's comparing increases without looking at average salaries. As an example, person A makes a million dollars a year and gets a 1% wage increase (or $10,000). Person B makes $10,000 a year and gets a 10% wage increase (or $1000). If you just compare wage increases, it makes it look like person B got a much better deal doesn't it? After all, 10% is 10 times more than 1%!

      How about a chart that shows recent contracts with various government workers in terms of actual dollars? THEN let's see where the BC teachers' recent proposal lies?

      I'm guessing you don't have that chart though.

      JC

      Sep 7, 2014 at 1:20pm

      In case you don't know, CC's a zone is all about %'ages, not actual dollars. I agree the chart is possibly misleading in some ways, but not the way she sees things. Benefits, by the way will cost an extra paltry $11M...not much of an increase. Don't pay attention to their number of $125M...that's what it would cost if every teacher went to the maximum amount in every area...chiro, massage, physio, etc...

      Jo

      Sep 7, 2014 at 1:33pm

      Journalists and basic math, the two shall never meet.

      JP

      Sep 7, 2014 at 1:51pm

      yep, they are greedy.

      M. Cameron

      Sep 7, 2014 at 2:18pm

      So why do the numbers look so inflated when the government and media report them? It is because they count EVERYTHING that isn't a strict wage as a benefit to those teachers. Is there an EA in the room? That EA's wages -- already accounted for under the CUPE contract -- is billed again but as a benefit to the teacher. Is there any prep time? Teacher B who takes over the class is billed to Teacher A as benefit although Teacher B was accounted for already (to Teacher B herself). It's madness.

      Imagine running a hospital that way. The surgeon is told that he actually costs a ton more than he thought because the scalpels he uses are costed as a benefit to him, the nurses in the O.R. are similarly considered a wage benefit, and the time he spent washing his hands and checking the X-rays were also a benefit because that wasn't, strictly speaking, time spent actually operating.

      Helen k

      Sep 7, 2014 at 2:56pm

      Conference Board of Canada has show that the average wage increase in the private sector is above 2%. Next year is predicted to be 2.3% for a BC.