Canadians Don’t Feel PS Underpaid: POLL

Published 04/27/2023 · Updated 04/27/2023

This is a release from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute:

As the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) strike passes the one-week mark, both sides in the contract dispute are under more pressure to reach an agreement. Union negotiators have reportedly moved off wage demands that asked for a 13.5 per cent increase in compensation over three years. The federal government has reportedly offered nine per cent over that period.

Public opinion data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds that while Canadians are sympathetic to many demands, a majority also feel that federal employees are fairly (36%) or overly (28%) compensated. Just one-in-five (17%) feel workers are underpaid.

Past Conservative supporters are by far the most likely to feel employees of the federal government are overpaid (46%), while New Democrats (33%) are most likely to say the opposite.

Views of compensation colour opinions of the union’s demands. Those who feel employees are underpaid are near-unanimous in their support for the aforementioned 13.5 per cent wage increase (91% support).

One area where Canadians are largely unified is the sentiment that federal employees have better working conditions than workers in other similar private industries. Seven-in-ten (72%) feel government workers have it better when it comes to benefits, job security, pension planning, and other perceived perks.

Majorities of past voters of the NDP, Liberal and CPC believe federal government employees have overall better working conditions than those with similar jobs in the private sector. However, the majority is smaller among those who voted NDP in 2021 (58%) than those who voted CPC (82%) or Liberal (76%).

These data find that union membership is evidently no monolith when it comes to modern politics. Members – both current and past – hold diverging views about PSAC demands and wage levels. They also do not support the party traditionally associated with labour movements – the NDP – at particularly high levels. Among those who are currently union members, one-in-three (34%) voted for the Liberal Party in 2021. Further, the CPC received more support (28%) than the NDP (26%). Among those who have worked in strictly a public union, either current or past, two-in-five supported the incumbent Liberals (39%), while the same number voted for the Conservatives (24%) and CUPE-endorsed New Democrats (24%).