Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Trends in Ontario Labour Relations and Employment
Ontario has a history of reasonably good labour relations, with some periods of conflict.
In general, there have been fewer work stoppages in Ontario’s BPS than in the private sector. 6
Employment has increased steadily in the past two decades across the major BPS sectors
and industries, including education, health and social services, and public administration.
From 1989 through to about 1993, employment increased in these broad industries and then
levelled off through the 1990s; subsequently, employment increased, modestly at first in
education and public administration, before increasing rapidly after about 2005. The increase
in health and social services employment has been quite significant since the end of the
1990s. Over the period from 2000 to 2011, Ontario public-sector employment in health care
and social services increased by 39 per cent and in education by 34 per cent. By 2011,
Ontario BPS employment accounted for just over 17 per cent of total employment in Ontario. 7
Total Compensation
Since 2003, prices in Ontario, as measured by the consumer price index, have increased by
17 per cent, average wages in Ontario have increased by 24 per cent and average BPS
wages have increased by 28 per cent. 8 These wage gains are based on reports of earned
income from a statistical sampling of Ontarians. As such, simple statistics like these miss
some key facts about compensation in Ontario.
6 Ontario Ministry of Labour, 2011.
7 Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey.
8 Calculated from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey, 2003–10.
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