Wage Equity Update #32 – New Wage Rates – April 2019

April 26, 2019

Written by Ernie

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Policy and Procedures Meeting on April 15th and reviewed draft policies, gave feedback on benefits coverage, and discussed Wage Equity and Low Wage Redress.  The presentation from the policy meeting is on the website for your review.

The new rates effective on the upcoming paycheque reflect a 3% increase over last year’s rates.  The 3% is a combination of the last 1% from the government’s ESM funding and 2% for the General Wage Increase (GWI) effective April 1, 2019.  Similar to the last funding plan, there is an additional special increase called Low Wage Redress.  The last plan had an increase called the comparability increase that was meant to move community social service wages closer to community health wages for similar work. It was provided to all community social service workers.  The challenge this year is that government has chosen to provide the Low Wage Redress only to unionized positions.  Agencies from across the Province are advocating for all positions to receive the funding and we are assisting in that effort.  You can read more about the advocacy efforts in Wage Equity Update #31, and here are some links to recent media attention on this issue:

• April 24, 2019 – Burnaby Now – Premier creating two classes of BC worker Low Wage Redress
• April 22, 2019 – Merritt Herald – Tom Fletcher – Lawsuit eyed over union-only raise for community care workers
• April 21, 2019 – Richmond News – Letter – Equal Pay for Equal Work

The value of this Low Wage Redress increase is 3.3% for community living front line services and we hope to have good news soon on getting this increase for all workers.

The new, interim wage grid with a 3% increase is here:

	2018-2019	2019-2020
	Sleep Night	New Sleep Night
Start	$12.65	$13.85
After 1,500 hrs	$12.80	$13.95
After 3,000 hrs	$12.95	$14.05
After 4,500 hrs	$13.10	$14.15
	Awake Overnight	New Awake Overnight
Start	$15.15	$15.60
After 1,500 hrs	$16.12	$16.60
After 3,000 hrs	$16.81	$17.31
After 4,500 hrs	$17.56	$18.09
	CSW	New CSW
Start	$17.81	$18.34
After 1,500 hrs	$18.34	$18.89
After 3,000 hrs	$18.99	$19.56
After 4,500 hrs	$20.33	$20.94
Senior CSW	$21.34	$21.98
	KeyWorker	New KeyWorker
Start	$18.06	$18.59
After 1,500 hrs	$18.59	$19.14
After 3,000 hrs	$19.24	$19.81
After 4,500 hrs	$20.58	$21.19
	Manager/Facilitator	New Mgr/Facilitator
Start	$22.28	$22.95
After 1,500 hrs	$23.03	$23.72
After 3,000 hrs	$23.84	$24.56
After 4,500 hrs	$24.90	$25.65
MGR SP specialist	$26.51	$27.31

If you have any media contacts or know some MLA’s, please let them know about this issue and ask them to speak up for fairness and equal pay for equal work.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Ernie Baatz
ernie@spectrumsociety.org