The reason you increase teacher pay is that we are starting to have teacher shortages. There aren’t always subs available right now which was unheard of pre-covid.
If you want to add even the 3000 teachers the government wants or the 6000 that would bring back down class sizes they need to be attracted to come here. That takes money.
I would argue changing the program and making it shorter to become a teacher.
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Now I realize to properly show this I would need to show that this didn’t happen 10 years ago and the best I can do is old Reddit thread anecdotes and my general perception that there wasn’t a sub shortage then as I was arguing that teachers were adequately paid during 2015.
A second piece of evidence would be grade averages of direct entry schools like Lethbridge. If teaching was in demand right now one would see pressure on entrance averages
Are sub lists a good way to determine this? My wife was on the sub list years ago, and it’s not great. I can see a lot of qualified teachers who don’t want to work that way.
I guess it’s anecdotal, but I have a hard time thinking that we have no teachers coming in because the pay isn’t good enough.
Are sub lists a good way to determine this? My wife was on the sub list years ago, and it’s not great. I can see a lot of qualified teachers who don’t want to work that way.
I guess it’s anecdotal, but I have a hard time thinking that we have no teachers coming in because the pay isn’t good enough.
Lots of subs will only pick up multi-day jobs or short-term contracts. The daily rate is $235 but on a multi-day job you could have a sub making $235 on day 1 and $525 on days 2+. If I post a half-day job to go to a medical appointment there's a really good chance it's not getting picked up, because $117 for 4 hours + travel just isn't worth it.
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Actually many in oil & gas have taken 2 rollbacks in the last 10 years. Oil crash prior to COVID and then during COVID.
Did the public sector roll back wages at least 10% twice?
I didn't see any rollbacks. Just thousands of people in layoffs. CNRL likes rollbacks and justify it by saying they do not do layoffs.
Makes you wonder why we keep investing so much in an industry that keeps laying off Albertans and reducing pay for Albertans. At least they are giving huge payouts to executives and shareholders....
However, the point in comparing O&G workers with teachers was to demonstrate that teachers are not the freeloading easy schedule profession that certain posters are trying to make them out to be with their nonsense of "only working 9 months per year" and whatnot. Apparently, teachers work about the same number of days as many O&G people but at a fraction of the pay.
It is also worth noting that while the O&G sector was riding its rollercoaster, the teacher industry did not. It's not like they suddenly had less kids in their classrooms or that some middle eastern country was making moves to flood the market with more education and lower the value of local education.
Trying to connect the dots between totally independent industries is like asking what the price of rice in China is when trying to figure out if you need a jacket before going outside.
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Are sub lists a good way to determine this? My wife was on the sub list years ago, and it’s not great. I can see a lot of qualified teachers who don’t want to work that way.
I guess it’s anecdotal, but I have a hard time thinking that we have no teachers coming in because the pay isn’t good enough.
Teaching is a country wide market place with need everywhere. We used to see the balance of out of province teachers come here when we paid more, now we pay less, have worse work conditions and work for a hostile/ incompetent employer.
We graduate 1500 teachers who will go into the education sector somewhere per year. First of all, if they all stayed, it is not nearly enough to support a labor market of 50 000 + workers. 20% of those are over 50 and leaving the profession at a rapid rate. The other 80% are also leaving the profession at an alarming rate. And our population is exploding. All of the leading indicators for teacher staffing in the province are going in the wrong direction.
The lifeblood of alberta teacher staffing used to be out of province graduates. But now, why would they come? I can't think of a single reason. The one BC lady i met in the last 5 years left after 1 month. She couldn't believe how bad it was and just left.
Furthermore, if you graduate here, why would you stay? Get paid less to get fed a turd sandwich from your employer. Hey guys, did you think teaching a hackneyed curriculum and endangering queer kids would be part of your job description? No? Well it is here and only here. Wait, where are you going?
The sub shortage is pronounced and is already effecting classrooms in a non marginal way, but there are other signs. Last year, we couldn't find a full time pe teacher until October. We literally had to attach a second break period to get someone. I've heard from principals that if a warm body walks through the door, they're getting the job.
Soon that will literally be the case as Quebec has 30 000 non licensed teachers in classrooms. We want so badly to be Quebec in so many ways, soon we will be able to check that one off the list.
Last edited by Major Major; 09-21-2025 at 11:32 AM.
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Its not unreasonable for Alberta teachers to have the highest wage in the country except for Nunavut, NWT, or the Yukon where living costs are much higher after a new deal is done. That's pretty much the case with every public sector job.
But we have a private sector that's about to contract pretty hard here. Our unemployment rate is already one of the highest in the country. So its not so easy to just grow the public sector and sustain it in these conditions. It will be a tricky task to get the number of new hires exactly correct over say a 5 year time period. If they screw that up and overhire...is the union going to agree to cut jobs 8 years from now?
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Its not unreasonable for Alberta teachers to have the highest wage in the country except for Nunavut, NWT, or the Yukon where living costs are much higher after a new deal is done.
Here's what my salary would be in every jurisdisction in Canada this year:
NWT: $153,748
Yukon: $140,926
Nunavut: $131,151 *2024 numbers - no agreement for 2025
Manitoba: $123,540
Ontario: $119,979
Nova Scotia: $113,619
Saskatchewan: $111,501
BC: $109,520
New Brunswick: $105,408
Alberta: $105,173
Newfoundland: $97,889
Quebec: $82,517
The proposed 3%, 3% wage increase would put me at $111,578, just slightly above Saskatchewan and below Nova Scotia.
An immediate 17.5% wage increase would be needed to make us the highest paid province outside of the territories.
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Here's what my salary would be in every jurisdisction in Canada this year:
NWT: $153,748
Yukon: $140,926
Nunavut: $131,151 *2024 numbers - no agreement for 2025
Manitoba: $123,540
Ontario: $119,979
Nova Scotia: $113,619
Saskatchewan: $111,501
BC: $109,520
New Brunswick: $105,408
Alberta: $105,173
Newfoundland: $97,889
Quebec: $82,517
The proposed 3%, 3% wage increase would put me at $111,578, just slightly above Saskatchewan and below Nova Scotia.
An immediate 17.5% wage increase would be needed to make us the highest paid province outside of the territories.
So if the offer was like 21% over 3 years with say 11-5-5 splits. Is that too little, or would that be acceptable. Or would you rather have 25 and less new hires?
Ill say this. Back in the late 90's I made more than a teacher in B.C. would.
Today I need to work 100 hours of OT a year to make 10 k less than you do. And that's based on me working 234 days a year with my 11 stat holidays a 3 weeks paid vacation.
I need to change careers. My 0% wage increase over the last 7 years is really starting to show. Nobody is leaving teaching for manufacturing! This is 100% a reflection on me and my poor life choices.
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So if the offer was like 21% over 3 years with say 11-5-5 splits. Is that too little, or would that be acceptable. Or would you rather have 25 and less new hires?
Ill say this. Back in the late 90's I made more than a teacher in B.C. would.
Today I need to work 100 hours of OT a year to make 10 k less than you do. And that's based on me working 234 days a year with my 11 stat holidays a 3 weeks paid vacation.
I need to change careers. My 0% wage increase over the last 7 years is really starting to show. Nobody is leaving teaching for manufacturing! This is 100% a reflection on me and my poor life choices.
It sounds like you need a union and/or government to fight for your rights. Those numbers are dismal.
So if the offer was like 21% over 3 years with say 11-5-5 splits. Is that too little, or would that be acceptable. Or would you rather have 25 and less new hires?
21 over 3 years would get most teachers on board, I would think. I’d think even 20 over 4 years would do it.
