The Canadian Taxpayers Federation released its annual Labour Day Reality Check report today highlighting the fact that 312,825 federal government employees and members of Parliament received pay raises while many workers outside of government struggled through the pandemic.
“Canadians have experienced a tale of two pandemics: one full of private sector pain, the other full of bureaucrat pay increases,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano.
“We need politicians and bureaucrats to help shoulder the burden because it can’t just be struggling families and businesses forced to pay back the $1-trillion federal debt.”
The Labour Day Reality Check report uses government documents exclusively obtained by the CTF and Statistics Canada data to highlight the divide between government employees and workers outside of government during the pandemic.
Key findings include:
• During the pandemic, 312,825 federal government employees received a pay raise.
• There have been 395,900 private sector job losses vs. 149,500 new government jobs (all government levels) between February 2020 and July 2021.
• In 2020, 74,925 federal employees made more than $100,000. That number grew by 5,918 during the pandemic. That’s up from 43,424 employees in 2015.
• All MPs received two pay raises during the pandemic, ranging from $6,900 for a backbench MP to $13,800 for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• The federal government has no records of its employees ever receiving a pay cut.
“MPs pocketing two pay raises during the pandemic is a slap in the face to the millions of Canadians struggling through COVID-19,” said Terrazzano. “At the very least, all party leaders should commit to reversing the pandemic politician pay raises.”