7/29/2019 AUPE - Government Employees and Wages

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aupe-government-employees-and-wages 1/2

CIVIL SERVICE

 ALBERTA’SSHRINKING

A steady chorus o right-wing lobby groups has been trying to

alarm Albertans with claims that government employee wages are

growing at an out-o-control rate. Their implicit message is that

Alberta’s defcit has been caused by unreasonable government

employee wage increases. Nothing could be urther rom the truth.

What those groups ail to mentionis that all Alberta wages have beengrowing rapidly. In act, whenseven years o wage settlementsnegotiated or direct employees o thegovernment o Alberta are comparedwith increases in Alberta AverageWeekly Earnings, there is a gap o approximately 20% (g. 1).

Te Canadian axpayers Federationrecently claimed that i you were a

government employee in 2007 “therecession didn’t happen” because no

 jobs were lost. Tat’s blatantly alse.Te recession began in the last quartero 2008, and by March 2011 therewere 1,646 ewer people working orthe government – a 7.4% cut (g. 3).

Furthermore, understanding thatthe recession would have an impactnot only on government nances,but temporarily moderate wagegrowth across all occupations, AUPE

members agreed to a wage reeze in2010 and 2011 (g. 2). Far right lobby groups want government employeesto accept wage reezes again,efectively replaying the recessionor civil servants while the rest o theprovince experiences nation-leadinggrowth.

So is Alberta’s civil service too big?Far rom it. In act, since the drasticcuts imposed in the 1990s, thenumber o rontline government

employees represented by AUPE hasnever recovered. Since 2002, growthin the public service has steadily declined against population growth,and in recent years the gap betweenemployees and the population growthhas widened considerably (g. 4).

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

GOVERNMENT SERVICES EMPLOYEES VS.  ALBERTA AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS

NOMINAL WAGE INCREASES

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

100%

105%

110%

115%

120%

125%

130%

135%

140%

145%

150%

GOVERNMENT SERVICES EMPLOYEES VS.  ALBERTA AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS

COMPOUND WAGE INCREASES (2004 = 100%)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20122004

Fig.1

Fig.2

7/29/2019 AUPE - Government Employees and Wages

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/aupe-government-employees-and-wages 2/2

 ALBERTA POPULATION GROWING

FASTER THAN GOVERNMENT

2002

161

164

163 163

175

182

176

164

167 167

167

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

ALBERTANSPER FRONTLINEGOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE

TREND

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

25,000 4,500,000

4,000,000

3,500,000

3,000,000

2,500,000

2,000,000

1,500,000

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20122004200320022001200019991998199719961995

 ALBERTA POPULATION GROWTH INCREASESDEMAND FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES

GOA GOVERNMENT SERVICES EMPLOYEES/AUPE MEMBERS(LEFT HAND SCALE)

ALBERTA POPULATION GROWTH(RIGHT HAND SCALE)

AUPE believes a strong public sectoris a necessary complement to a healthy growing economy. As Finance MinisterDoug Horner has put it, when peoplemove to Alberta, they don’t bring

government services with them.Unortunately, ar rom outstrippingpopulation increases over the past decade,the number o employees available toprovide government services has declinedagainst that growth.

Fig.3

Fig.4