‘We are all first responders’: ONA says Bill 124 contributing to nurses’ wage gap

The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) say Premier Doug Ford has agreed to a good-faith retention bonus of $5,000 for all front-line nurses in publicly-funded settings after meeting with him on Friday.

It comes as the ONA began calling attention to how Bill 124 is contributing to increasing wage gap for nurses.

According to data by the ONA, nurses’ wages have increased by just over 15 per cent over the last 12 years, from a max salary of $82,758 to $95,589 for full-time nurses with 25 years of service. This is compared to over 30 per cent for both police officers and firefighters.

The wage progression can be seen in this chart below provided by the ONA.

The wage comparison between hospital RNs, police officers and firefighters over the last 12 years

ONA President Cathryn Hoy tells CityNews whenever they enter wage negotiations, they ask for pay parity with fire and police services as they are all considered front-line workers.

“They’ll say that they’re not using police and fire as a comparable, but I say ‘Why not?’ We are all first responders. Actually nurses face as much danger, I would even think more danger, compared to police and fire,” said Hoy. “We have nurses that are kicked, that are punched, sexually threatened each and every day in several different departments [and] the weapons that come into [emergency rooms] and mental health units.”

Hoy also noted registered nurses have spent the last two years caring for patients with COVID-19, putting themselves at risk in an overwhelmed health care system while only seeing their hourly wages go up by pennies.

She adds while it might not be direct, these wage discrepancies are contributing to the gender pay gap.

“A female-dominated profession versus a male-dominated profession? It just seems unfair [that] the male-dominated professions were exempt from Bill 124 while healthcare wasn’t. No equality there to me,” said Hoy.

Bill 124 caps salary increases for public sector employees at one per cent. Some of the other professions included in Bill 124 are social workers, children’s aid workers and teachers, jobs that are usually female-dominated.

Hoy said in a press release about the meeting with Ford while he did not agree to repeal Bill 124, she said it was still on the table for further discussion.

Sarah Kaplan, a professor and director of Institute for Gender and the Economy, said while a policy itself may seem neutral, intentionally or not, “the impact is actually gendered.”

“Whether we’re talking about corporate downsizing or government caps, often these impacts of these policies end up disproportionately affecting not just women but other marginalized people. And so we know that you have to do a gender-based and intersectional gender-based analysis on these kinds of policies to understand if you are actually exacerbating inequality when you put them in place,” said Kaplan.

She adds when it comes to Bill 124, 55 per cent of the public service employees affected are women.

“It’s an example of the way that our society is not valuing the caring professions and an example of how these policies that get put in place maybe for good reasons, actually are creating really negative outcomes when it comes to achieving equality in our society,” explained Kaplan.

The Ontario government tells CityNews nurses were included in the workers who received pandemic pay — an additional $3,560 for the average employee on top of their existing wages over a 16-week period.

A spokesperson for the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) added it was inaccurate to suggest that Bill 124 caps wage increases at one per cent annually because under this legislation, employees are still able to receive salary increases for seniority, performance, or increased qualifications.

The province also noted Bill 124 did not apply to municipal workers, which includes municipal firefighters and police officers.

The ONA said Ford will be bringing the lump-sum payment plan to the Treasury Board next week for approval and provide more details on implementation

Ford has also agreed to resurrect the Late-Career Nursing Initiative, the New Graduate program, and will work with the Ontario Hospital Association to ensure exhausted nurses can take vacation, according to the ONA.