Moncton – The New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity highlights the provincial government's investments in two female-dominated sectors in the 2019-2020 budget, but stresses the need to double our efforts to achieve pay equity.
The budget allocates $16.1 million to increase salaries for workers in the community care-giving sector. It remains to be determined what services and care sector jobs are targeted by this wage increase.
"This is a step forward and we will be closely monitoring the details of the budget in the coming weeks. It takes a long-term plan for workers across the care-giving sector to achieve pay equity," says Coalition President Frances LeBlanc.
The Coalition underlines that the $1 million salary increase for trained early childhood educators is far from meeting the planned allocation by the Liberal government in the 2018-2019 budget. The projected $28 million Investment over four years would have increased wages by a dollar a year from $16 to $19 an hour in 2023.
"It is clear that at this rate, early childhood educators will not achieve pay equity for decades," says Frances LeBlanc. "Social and community services are the social infrastructure on which rely families and the broader New Brunswick economy. These services are critical to support women and men’s full and equal participation in the labour market."