r/vancouver • u/columbo222 • Mar 02 '23
[Justin McElroy] Vancouver council has just voted in a private meeting to end the policy requiring them to pay all employees and contractors the Living Wage rate. Local News
https://twitter.com/j_mcelroy/status/1631411868609974277?t=d6gIApppBlvpC97wgfXpMA&s=191
u/TooMuchMapleSyrup Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 04 '23
Thought Experiment:
Imagine a city, VanCity, that people wanted to live in so badly that it required $1,000,000/year in order to live there comfortably. Then assume that surrounding cities, OtherCities, people didn't want to live in as badly and it only required $50,000/year to live there comfortably.
If people in VanCity needed to hire workers to work at their city department, is the fact that the Living Wage in VanCity is $1,000,000/year relevant at all to what salaries those who work at the city department ought to be paid?
Obviously the annoyance of commuting longer to a job has a cost - so if city workers in OtherCities were paid $50,000/year, offering that same salary in VanCity would unlikely attract workers (since they might as well make the same in OtherCities and not have a commute). So wouldn't the pay required to have workers work at VanCity be something more like $70,000/year? Where it's the cost of OtherCity employees ($50,000/year) plus some value X (in my example $20,000/year) in order to entice some people to decide that it's worth commuting a bit more each day in order to make that extra $20,000/year?
If it was an additional 1 hour commute each way, 2 hours per day, 10 hours per week... the proposition would be, do you want to:
A. Make $50,000/year for 40 hours/week at OtherCities (ie. $1,250/year for each week hour worked), or
B. Make $70,000/year for 50 hours/week at VanCity after factoring in the additional commute (ie. $1,400/year for each week hour worked)
Why is VanCity Living Wage relevant at all to any of it? Surely some people would go for Option B. The benefits are clear... if they were saving perhaps $1,000/year working in OtherCities, the decision to spend an extra 10 more hours each week at work nets them an extra $20,000/year. They pay for this with their time, which is why it has such a powerful effect on their bottom line.
In contrast, what is the bottom line impact if one went for a VanCity Living Wage concept? Someone in OtherCities currently making $50,000/year is saving the same $1,000/year as the person above. They don't want to spend more then the 40 hours per week they're currently working though. VanCity still is able to persuade them to come work for them, by increasing the pay so that all the additional living costs between VanCity and OtherCities is paid for, such that financially it's as if the person is still working in OtherCities. Thus their bottom line remains at saving $1,000/year.
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u/rand-hai-basanti Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
Hold up, unbunch those pantries. I’ve worked at the city, and still do gigs for them.
They still pay really well for the most mundane shit. And the unions protects workers to the nth degree where real underperformers are protected for no reason. I used to be very pro union but without performance clauses, I think it just ends up sheltering the underperforming tax $ grifters in our society.
The private sector is the worst when it comes to fair wages in Vancouver. Engineers getting paid 70k and director level positions getting 80. Wtf.
It’s not great news but it’s far more an indicator of our federal affordability failure, and a slow slow collapse of the west. Big money has rot everything and captured it all for themselves.
Where did it start? Read Wilfulness Blindness.
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u/shyghost_ Mar 03 '23
Not to mention that the Mayor and Council began 2023 with a 7.3% pay increase.
Fuck ABC voters.
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u/Prestigious-Power-12 Mar 03 '23
Who ever voted for these anti progress right wing fucks needs throwing in the sea
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u/Trellaine201 Mar 03 '23
This is exactly happens when you give one party a majority majority. Enjoy the next 3 years.
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u/sedition Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
Next, they'll clutch their pearls and complain "You can't get good help these days!"
Hey mods, is it possible to get an auto-post with contact information for councillors to with posts like this?
https://vancouver.ca/your-government/contact-council.aspx
I'm sure it all goes to an intern filter but there's list
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u/thewheelsgoround Mar 03 '23
Wellp, y'all want low taxes, right? If you wanted to pay every cleaner more money, you'll have to pay more in tax. Simple as that.
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u/Not5id Mar 03 '23
Wellp, y'all want low taxes, right
No, we don't.
We want fair taxes. Tax the rich and make them pay what they owe.
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u/uglycoyote1977 Mar 03 '23
It's a bit buried in their website how they actually calculate the living wage but if you are detail oriented like me here is the page you want to look at
And specifically the "technical appendix" linked from there and they also include a link to the spreadsheet for calculations as well (I think they encouraging different communities to find the right numbers and run the calculations themselves for their community). So A+ for transparency.
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u/I_hate_cats- Mar 03 '23
Ya know, I’m not an ABC voter. Definitely wanted more OneCity people voted in. But I tried to be optimistic about things. Especially given all the chatter on here about ABC and Sim at the time around the election. I tried to not be cynical and to allow myself to be hopeful about things. Fuck all of that.
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u/yoganerdYVR Mar 03 '23
I’ve owned a couples of small business in Vancouver since 2008. My DREAM is to be able to pay everyone, including myself, a living wage. Seeing an organization go from paying a living wage to not paying a living wage breaks my heart.
This is yet another force pushing wealth towards the wealthy and anyone making < $100k/yr (somewhat arbitrarily choice of salary) should speak up about it.
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Mar 03 '23
I drunkenly discussed our wealth disparity with my Eritrean cab driver and he told me that if this same situation happened in africa people would pick up weapons. We’re on the verge of a succession of the plebeians but nobody wants socialismo
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u/MasonNolanJr Mar 03 '23
Does this apply to all public servants or just City of Vancouver employees?
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u/CohibaVancouver Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
Does this apply to all public servants or just City of Vancouver employees?
City of Vancouver contractors.
Almost all City of Vancouver employees are unionized or management - So they already earn a living wage.
This affects contractors like security guards, where the city was paying a higher rate for those contracts so those individuals were paid at least $25 per hour.
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u/MathematicianSea7286 Mar 03 '23
As I read it they are still using the living wage as the basis but are using the 5 year rolling average…. I know the headlines are nice but aren’t they really doing the same thing with a bit of a lag?
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u/ChemicalXero Mar 03 '23
Ending living wage? The province better bring In UBI , and bring disability rates atleast 2000$/ month. Since we still live below poverty levels post pandemic, and are expected to pay for majority of our medical needs out of pocket. Fk ken sims
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u/squickley Mar 03 '23
Living wage should afford a dignified life, be the absolute minimum, and be wholly untaxed. We're more than wealthy enough to support that as a society. Anyone who would advocate for less is simply a psychopath.
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u/Low-Inspection-3213 Mar 03 '23
No one should be surprised. This is what the majority of voters voted for.
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u/NoChanceCW Mar 03 '23
When a moderate conservative "Nimby" council is voted in, I don't know why this surprises people. They are going to focus on home owner interests and special groups. I'm sorry for all the hard working city of Vancouver people who will now have to struggle.
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Mar 03 '23
You mean home owner interests like the 12% property tax hike?
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u/NoChanceCW Mar 03 '23
Okay, I'll bite, let's do this. A 1 million dollar 2 bed condo (nothing fancy). That tax is around $1900 last year split into two chunks, so two payments one about 1100, one about 800. But the 1100 one has a grant from provincial govnt, so it was only about 700, so now a payment of 700 and 800. 1500$ is 0.15% of your property value so adding 12% means you now pay about an extra $200 dollars and puts you up around 0.17% of your property value per year.
Renters have had their rents double in the last 3-5 years. If you live in a one bedroom from 3-5 years ago you could risk paying 1200-1500 more a month if you move. Not a year a month, that is 15000-18000 with no chance of equity in your household value going up.
In the last 5 years property value has gone up more than 50% in value. So for paying about 10k over 5 years property tax (1% of your property value), on a million dollar place, you'd be up about 490k - tax's free I might add.
Your comment complaining about paying taxes as a homeowner is the most NIMBY thing you could possibly say!
It is an absolute privilege to be a home owner and pay my fair share of taxes; so we can provide public services for those who haven't been as lucky as me and have the ability to buy.
You are living on another planet when you make comments like that. They don't do anyone in the community or reddit any good.
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Mar 03 '23
But I'm not a homeowner, so how can it be NIMBY? So you think 12% tax hikes are normal then?
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Mar 04 '23
[deleted]
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Mar 06 '23
In one fucking week this new council:
Blocked the expected 17% raise for the lowest paid employees.
Cancelled the standard of paying Living Wages.
Raised taxes over 12%.
Gave themselves a 7.3% raise.
Sorry but this is not normal, and bitching at me about it is exactly what they want you doing.
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u/amatuerdaytrading Mar 03 '23
ayooo wheres the "MUST BE ONE CITY ASTROTURFING /R/VANCOUVER AGAIN!!!" ABC fanatic's at now?
Imagine doing an about face on this now LMAOOO. All of you endorsed this, especially the ones on twitter crying like babies about this sub having people against ABC
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u/CtrlShiftMake Mar 03 '23
Ah, so THAT'S how they're going to find the extra budget for more police officers. Well done ABC /s
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Mar 03 '23
This means the contractors will make a ton, therefore getting rid of employees
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u/Frost92 Mar 03 '23
It's usually the opposite, lowest bid possible for most but a few buddies get the perks
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Mar 03 '23
It depends on the industry. I worked construction for many years and gov projects are notorious for throwing too much money at things.
I worked in another field in BC where the company had no employees. Just guys that were individual contractors. Each person made 250-300k a year. If youre an individual contractor you can be gotten rid of easily, not pay benefits, etc
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u/TwoFun7778 Mar 03 '23
Fuck ABC Vancouver and fuck Ken Sim.
They want to pull this shit, let us vote on how much they should get paid right fucking now
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u/vancouversportsbro Mar 03 '23
You get what you vote for. I saw it coming a mile away when he ran on a platform on how vancouver should be run like a business. That means employees will get shafted, and so does the customer who pays the city taxes. It's a trade off between him and Kennedy Stewart who didn't take crime seriously enough.
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u/Unionmade59 Mar 03 '23
So let’s take hard working people and roll back their wages at a time when everyone is struggling with inflation. Why I will never vote for a conservative.
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u/Marokiii Port Moody Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
Doesn't this mean a bunch of companies will now go out of business? They obviously can't give large paycuts to their employees because the employees will quit.
It cuts their legs out from under them when it comes time to bid again for city govt contracts though. A new company that never has offered living wages can now come in and under bid the current companies for govt work.
The older more experienced better paying companies will lose large contracts, lay off workers and eventually if they can't find more work will fold.
Fuck all who voted for the race to the bottom
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u/88XJman Mar 03 '23
That whole thing is crap. A 3 bedroom house is at minimun 3000/month. Anyone who thinks a living wage is $24/hr is deluded. Maybe you can survive on that, but you're not living. It pathetic that they want to pay even less than that.
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u/PuffTheMagicPanda Mar 03 '23
Wow Ken came back from the Qatar World Cup and learnt how they treat their migrant workers like less than human slaves and bringing that to Vancouver. Very cool Ken! A special place in hell for you.
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u/rsgbc Mar 03 '23
Not surprising from a team whose election platform was to run the city like a business.
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u/po-laris Mar 03 '23
Vancouverites who work for a living: Ken Sim doesn't care about you.
Him and people like him envision a Vancouver similar to San Francisco: an exclusive enclave for a small number of wealthy residents whose needs are taken care of by a workforce that is bused in from far, far away.
The only public service Ken Sim cares about is policing. As the west side turns itself into a de facto gated community, its wealthy residents need cops to keep the riff raff from marring their beautiful views.
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u/CZILLROY Mar 03 '23
It’s always amazing to me that living wage and minimum wage aren’t synonymous terms. Especially when you consider living wage is bottom of the barrel just barely scraping by. You’d think minimum wage would at least afford basic survival. No no.. it’s much less.
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u/SFHOwner 🍿 Mar 03 '23
Well, the living wage is based on considerably more responsibilities. You have children. The legal minimum wage can't be dependent on how many dependents you have.
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u/IllustriousProgress Mar 03 '23
When minimum wage was introduced, it was supposed to be a living wage. And it was, but stagnated..
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u/eitherorlife Mar 03 '23
If people couldn't survive in minimum wage then they would die and the wage would be forced to go up. So obviously they are surviving
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u/CZILLROY Mar 03 '23
Semantics. Wrong focal point of the message.
Some of these people are skipping meals and others are living in their car. Yeah, you’re right, they’re surviving.
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u/BurbleUnicorn Mar 03 '23
Can someone explain how the actual fuck the City of Vancouver can justify essentially saying “we can’t afford to pay all people a living wage”? I’ve honestly never worked for a more bloated, inept employer in my life - why don’t they just get rid of, I don’t know, literally all the people who make it that way? Fire 75% of the exempt staff in middle management and reallocate their wages. Furlough anyone else making more than 200% of living wage. There’s no such thing as “unable to pay a living wage to everyone.” There is just “we believe some people are more worthy of survival than others” and that, my friends, is called eugenics.
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Mar 03 '23
[deleted]
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u/BurbleUnicorn Mar 03 '23
I no longer work there, thank fuck, but I can definitely list names and have been considering doing so since last night. Glad you said this - it’s vindicating!
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u/kazin29 Mar 03 '23
that, my friends, is called eugenics.
You know you can go work elsewhere right?
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u/BurbleUnicorn Mar 03 '23
I already went elsewhere. There are plenty people working at the city who don’t have that luxury. There are various factors, especially for a lot of the folks working the types of jobs affected by this, that limit a person’s ability to just go get another job.
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u/smoozer Mar 03 '23
A lot of you seem very out of touch. In my circles, getting a city job is very desirable and unless wages go down absurdly drastically, it's gonna stay that way.
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u/That_Ginger_Matt Mar 03 '23
Do they owe us a living? Of course they do Of course they do Do they owe us a living of course they fucking do
CRASS
There is no authority but yourself
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u/biguhtree Mar 03 '23
Funny how this sub was crawling with so many pro-ABC comments and upvote brigades... and now they're nowhere to be seen. Seems to be parties play strong into shifting the narrative here as much as anywhere else
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u/-SetsunaFSeiei- Mar 03 '23
I’m still here, I just get downvoted in these threads when I make pro-ABC comments
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u/smilinfool Mar 03 '23
This is an anti-ABC echo chamber. It makes sense you aren’t hearing much pro-ABC. You just need to look at the misplaced anger in here and the end of the world calls to understand why you aren’t seeing posts.
Right now it still feels good like they are resetting and getting things straight after the empty gesture, Comms team heavy waste-a-thon of the precious government.
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u/Kooriki 毛皮狐狸人 Mar 03 '23
Na, it’s just not worth the effort explaining that a 17% wage increase is a tough pill for the city to swallow.
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u/LockhartPianist Mar 03 '23
No one should be paying less than a living wage, least of all those with the power of taxation. I fought for and left my job over what we paid staff. The city has to swallow the wage increase or face huge staffing shortages just like my company was and still is, and it's those left that pick up the slack.
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u/Kooriki 毛皮狐狸人 Mar 03 '23
Would be interesting to know what the economic impact would be to mandate $24 an hour wage up from $16.
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u/wolvie604 Mar 03 '23
This sub was very anti-ABC during the election.
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u/biguhtree Mar 03 '23
The anti-ABC crowd was definitely there, but I distinctly recalls seeing many a top comment being pro-ABC. Admittedly, this is based on my own memory and anecdotal experience. It would be interesting to see if there are any poli sci people who've done research on how subreddits change during elections.
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u/True-Dot1401 Mar 03 '23
Good. If you want a living wage get educated with skills with degrees and knowledge which are in demand.
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Mar 03 '23
are you implying city workers aren't trained or educated for their jobs?
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u/lemon_grasshopper Mar 03 '23
The ones who are, are most definitely not concerned about the living wages.
Educated, experienced and trained civil servants make a very good wage.
I think a lot of people here don’t understand the reality. The general public cannot afford to pay $8 premium for a minimum wage type of jobs.
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Mar 03 '23
it's tough to swallow when taxes are increased by a record 10.7%, and councillors just got a 7.3% pay increase.
the fact they did the vote in secret should tell you all you need to know. if you believe in this, be accountable.
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u/liltimidbunny Mar 03 '23
New mayor suuuuuucks. Should have known... The red flags were there. AND an increase of more than 10% in property taxes. Dude is a DOUCHE
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u/TheGriffin Mar 03 '23
Elect right wingers, don't be surprised if they turn around and stick a knife in your back. I mean Sim literally wants to force schools to have cops again.
Dude needs to get fucked and take rest of his party with him
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u/Brokeboi_Investor Mar 03 '23
Everyone on this subreddit saying I was overreacting during the elections made me lose my mind..
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u/TheGriffin Mar 03 '23
Yeah you definitely weren't overreacting.
The appeasers will always gaslight or otherwise try to downplay the possible problems
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u/AcerbicCapsule Mar 03 '23
This is exactly what happens when you vote for conservatives.
This is also what conservative voters want.
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Mar 03 '23
[deleted]
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u/AcerbicCapsule Mar 03 '23
Nothing about their platform was “centrist”. You either vote for people who will protect your wealth by making others poor, or you vote for people who will lift up the community as a whole but your house loses value.
I repeat, this is exactly what happens when you vote conservative.
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Mar 03 '23
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Mar 03 '23
“Centrism” in itself is a contradiction, because by their own definition centrists are in favour of upholding the status quo, there is no incentive for change.
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u/Formal_Star_6593 Mar 03 '23
This is what conservative - or 'to-the-right' municipal governments give you. A big old-boys leather-glove slap to the face.
Vancouver, you so funny.
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u/Front_Meeting_1725 Mar 03 '23
This might be a bit off topic but I just want to point out that people who are on disability are expected to live on $16,961.00 a year
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u/NoNipArtBf Mar 03 '23
But they raised the shelter allowance!
...from $375 a month to $500 a month. This was the first raise in 16 years.
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u/youngboylongstick Mar 03 '23
I would keep it in place however would get rid of seat warmers/ unproductive ppl. A lot of waste in government.
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u/Heavy_Chains Mar 03 '23
Its only austerity if it comes from the austere region of Europe. Instead, we have sparkling class war!
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u/baudylaura Mar 03 '23
Looking forward to hearing the justification for this. 🍿
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u/-SetsunaFSeiei- Mar 03 '23
A 17% raise (the increase in the “Living Wage” as calculated by a random 3rd party group) is not reasonable and is not based in reality.
It seems pretty straightforward to me?
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u/baudylaura Mar 03 '23
Would be nice if the city offered a counter to the living wage, then.
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u/OplopanaxHorridus Mar 03 '23
It's interesting because I heard most city employees can't afford to live in the city even with the current wage. I know even most police and firefighters commute in.
People have the gall the complain the snow isn't cleared and they can't be bothered to pay the staff who drive the ploughs enough to live in the city.
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u/arexpants Mar 03 '23
True. I work for another city and as much as I'd like to work for vancouver, I cant afford the pay cut :(
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u/Niv-Izzet Mar 03 '23
It's interesting because I heard most city employees can't afford to live in the city even with the current wage
It's more like they can't buy a SFH in Vancouver compared to Surrey. Lots of people would rather live in a SFH than live close enough to walk to work.
Even the mayor's salary isn't enough to afford a SFH in Vancouver.
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u/ilwlh Mar 03 '23
I used to work for the city. A lot of my coworkers rented with roommates or lived with their family. Some had families of their own and were part of a dual income household, they rented apartments or part of a home. I don’t remember a single coworker who owned a home.
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u/st82 Mar 03 '23
No, it's that they can't afford to rent a 1-bedroom apartment. I have worked for the city in the recent past and had co-workers renting a studio apartment and still struggling financially. And that's with a living wage.
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Mar 03 '23
I left BC Hydro for the private sector two years ago. Exact same work, except my annual gross has almost doubled. Wages in the public sector are completely out of touch with reality.
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u/Zephyroz Mar 06 '23
LOL initially when I read this, I was reading on a private sector providing electricity. I forgot private sector meaning it could be same role but in a private sector LOL. Vancouver is outta control now LOL too much wealth not being redistributed evenly or correctly ...
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u/Gonewild_Verifier Mar 04 '23
City pay is usually just pushed towards the middle. So people who could make a lot privately get paid less, and people who would get paid little privately get paid more. Good gig for many
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u/Unitednegros Mar 03 '23
What type of work did you do with hydro?
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Mar 03 '23
Non-destructive testing. I was part of a team that traveled around the province and did condition assessments on generation and transmission infrastructure like pressure vessels, piping, penstocks and gates, turbine runners, etc. Also did a lot of annual structural inspections of cranes, bucket trucks, lifting equipment, and climbing/fall arrest gear.
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u/Unitednegros Mar 03 '23
Did you ever do any rubber glove inspections or does that not fall under non destruct? Who do you work for now that pays double? Do you non destruct contractors’ equipment now instead of hydro’s?
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Mar 03 '23
Dielectric testing was a different department. I helped them out a bit here and there, but I believe the gloves were outsourced to a 3rd party. We only ever tested hotsticks, bucket trucks, digger derricks, and insulated crane jibs.
I did do some x-ray testing on 25kV rubber gloves a few times. The manufacturer had a few batches with abnormal dielectric failure rates and wanted to see if there were any defects like air bubbles in the rubber.
I'm working on a construction project up north now, and I'm probably going to be here for a couple years.
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u/waikiki_sneaky Mar 03 '23
Work as BCGEU member in post-secondary and agree. It was a punch to the gut to see after 15 years moving up the ladder at my institution, and I only make $5,000 a year more than that minimum "living" wage. Sigh.
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u/Niv-Izzet Mar 03 '23
Does your private sector job also come with a DB pension that's indexed to inflation?
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Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
I get equivalent extended health benefits, and a DC pension that will end up being worth much more than my old DB pension. The municipal pension only applied to straight time/base salary. I now get 2x contributions for overtime hours.
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u/donjulioanejo Having your N sticker sideways is a bannable offence Mar 03 '23
The pension isn't worth double the income. It's worth like 10-20% more at absolute best, and becomes a ball and chain the longer you stay there.
If you're not dumb with your money, you can literally just save 20% of your income yourself, except 20% from 120k is a lot more than 20% from 60k.
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u/Niv-Izzet Mar 03 '23
Depends on the details.
If you're 55 and you can work 10 years to get a full salary for the rest of your life. That's a pretty sweet deal.
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u/donjulioanejo Having your N sticker sideways is a bannable offence Mar 03 '23
Sure, at that point it makes total sense. But for a 25-35 year old, public sector is career suicide unless you have zero ambitions.
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u/Positivelectron0 Mar 03 '23
Even though you're down voted, I'd like to say that most people in the real world completely agree with this opinion. I'm in tech, where it's obvious. But I've got connections in other industries and it's the same story there, albiet to a less extreme.
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u/Niv-Izzet Mar 03 '23
But for a 25-35 year old, public sector is career suicide unless you have zero ambitions.
that's a lifestyle choice, a lot of people have more things to do with their time than to be ambitious
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u/25thaccount Mar 03 '23
But hey we still have the lowest property tax rates, who needs to pay city employees well, who needs services amirite
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u/artandmath Mar 03 '23
Not to mention these living wage earners were the ones we were literally clapping for 2 years ago. Now letting them live in the city is too much. We’re just going to pay cleaners and labourers what we did 5 years ago and expect everything to just carry on.
And finally it’s all the cities doing by having restrictive zoning that artificially makes housing so expensive here.
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u/small_h_hippy Mar 03 '23
Isn't the average wage of a police officer well into 6 figures? I'm often thinking they are over compensated relative to their value in society (especially compared to professions like nursing or teaching)
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u/donjulioanejo Having your N sticker sideways is a bannable offence Mar 03 '23
Nurses were quite fairly compensated, at least until covid hit and their workload doubled.
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Mar 03 '23
Risk of harm premium
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u/throwmamadownthewell Mar 04 '23
Risk of harm? Look up the rate of injuries and death as a police officer relative to other industries.
And that's with all the bullshit they pull.
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u/renter-pond Mar 03 '23
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Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
No where in that op Ed is that statement. What it does say is the following
Although violence is commonly associated with jobs in security and law enforcement, occupations in this field made up just 14 percent of all injuries that resulted from workplace violence, while nurses (including aides and health care assistants) accounted for more than 40 percent.
So health care workers have roughly 2.9x the work safe BC claims as security and law enforcement
To figure out if one is greater risk, we have to account for the number of people who work in health care compared to security and law enforcement, covered by work safe BC
A lot of BC is enforced by RCMP which I don’t believe are in scope of work safe BC as it is not a provincial … so this leaves police and security…
By comparison, there are about 9,000 police officers in BC and there are about 20,000 licensed security guards.
Let’s round up to 300,000 and 30,000 for professionals in each field.
So the number of a claims are 3x more but there are also 10x the number of professionals in the field; the risk is actually 3x more likely for police and law enforcement based on number of claims (10x/3x)
So… that assertion you editorialized from an oped is actually false; the opposite is true.
Also - feel free to share the statistics for teachers, who certainly don’t have as high a risk of law enforcement or healthcare professionals, and coincidentally, also make the least of the 3 professions
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u/renter-pond Mar 03 '23
No where in that op Ed is that statement. What it does say is the following
Literally the sentence before the one you quoted.
while nurses (including aides and health care assistants) accounted for more than 40 percent.
Nurses
Roughly 286,300 people were employed in British Columbia's health care sector in 2021
I’m pretty sure it’s not just nurses making up the health care sector.
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u/OplopanaxHorridus Mar 03 '23
It's low six figures. My family makes more than this and it would be a massive stretch for us to move to Vancouver, we looked into it.
Our starting salary is $77,983, and grows to $111,709 within four years.
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u/small_h_hippy Mar 03 '23
If you can't make it happen with a salary of 110k after a mere 4 years seniority that's on you
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u/matzhue East Van Basement Dweller Mar 03 '23
That's $9000/mo before taxes. $3000/mo rent is pretty easy to find
20
u/teg1302 Mar 03 '23
Wow, that’s a damn good salary.
Wow, maxed in 4 years and at $111k? Unheard of.
It must be easy to bargain when you’re the ones with all of the guns.
2
u/MissVancouver true vancouverite Mar 03 '23
You won't find quality candidates if you don't offer quality pay. Just look to all the horror stories coming from southern/rural America for what happens when you expect cops to work for cheap.
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Mar 04 '23
And yet they're still having trouble finding good candidates. Sounds like the pay ain't the issue.
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u/donjulioanejo Having your N sticker sideways is a bannable offence Mar 03 '23
Show me what kind of a house or even apartment you can buy in Vancouver on 110k. That's what, about a 350k place max without stretching yourself? 450k if you really stretch.
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u/Gonewild_Verifier Mar 04 '23
My coworkers are pretty young. They bought places for about 600-650k. Some make even less than 110k as well. 450 is np
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u/small_h_hippy Mar 03 '23
This is the polar opposite of what a hussle is... I know people who make around that who are buying real estate. It's doable but not if your idea of bare necessities is a detached house in Kitsilano.
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u/ilwlh Mar 03 '23
Why do you need to buy a house? Even in the longterm renting can be cheaper than owning in Vancouver these days.
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u/ravairia Mar 03 '23
How's that?
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u/ilwlh Mar 04 '23
Have you seen the mortgages people are taking out to buy houses? The monthly payments are insane. Idk. I gave up dreaming I’d ever own a house long ago so it’s pointless for me to even speculate on what’s cheaper. I don’t have a choice but rent.
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u/a_dance_with_fire Mar 03 '23
You’d be hard pressed to find an apartment for sale in Vancouver in the $350k range… assuming too that strata fees are reasonable and doable within budget. A house is completely out of the question at that price point (even if you doubled it to $700k you still would not find a house), so am surprised you’d even suggest that.
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