Six-figure teachers triple under Wynne
The number of Ontario teachers earning more than $ 100,000 a year has nearly tripled under Premier Kathleen Wynne, according to a National Post analysis, and that’s before new contracts guaranteeing a four per cent raise kick in.
In 2014 — one year after Wynne succeeded Dalton McGuinty — 2,517 people listed as teachers made the socalled Sunshine List of public servants earning six figures. Two years later, that number rose to 7,066. The Toronto District School Board had the largest increase, ballooning to 1,022 teachers on the list from fewer than 200 three years ago.
As a result, taxpayers were left with a $765-million bill to pay the salaries of the teachers who made the list in 2016, compared with $263 million in 2014.
“The unions keep screaming poverty and saying their teachers are underpaid,” said Christine Van Geyn, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “It’s hard to keep making that argument when you see so many people on the Sunshine List. “It’s disturbing.” Of the 62 school boards with teachers on the list for the past three years, 34 saw their numbers increase each year. Only two boards — Algoma District School Board and Ottawa Catholic School Board — had decreases across the three- year span. While the TDSB had the largest increase in terms of the number of teachers, three others grew sevenfold: Durham, Halton and Simcoe County. The Hamilton- Wentworth District School Board’s numbers multiplied by eight over three years, from 44 teachers in 2014 to 361 teachers in 2016.
The National Post analyzed the past three Sunshine Lists, organizing the names of those listed as teachers and teacher consultants by each individual school board in Ontario and adding their salaries and benefits. Those classified as principals, coordinators or any other titles were not included.
Ann Hawkins, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said the numbers don’t surprise her because the Sunshine List continues to use “outdated criteria.” Some critics, like Hawkins, consider the list, with 37 teachers who earned $ 150,000, to be flawed because it’s not indexed to inflation. If the numbers were adjusted, only public- sector employees earning $ 147,219 would make the list.
“It’s not clear whose interests are being served by publicizing information based on severely outdated criteria,” Hawkins wrote.
The reason teachers make the Sunshine List despite a maximum salary of $ 95,794 is because they take on additional duties such as summer school courses or hold higher positions such as department heads.
But both Elliott and the Ministry of Education attribute the inflated numbers to a one- time payout established in the 2014-2017 collective agreements that allowed teachers to cash in banked sick days before retirement at a discounted rate.
Before 2012, Ontario teachers were able to bank unused sick days until retirement, when they could cash them in for a maximum of half of a year’s salary. McGuinty stopped the practice and, according to the government, saved $ 1.6 billion over three years.
As part of the deal, eligible teachers had the choice of cashing in, but losing 7.5 per cent for every year they were away from retirement, Elliott said.
“That might have been an anomaly for the year,” he said. “The only thing I can think of was that gratuity payout.”
Teacher salaries are determined by their rank on an 11-step grid that they are able to climb based on every year of experience they gain in a permanent position and their qualifications. The average salary for Ontario’s 170,000 teachers is about $ 88,000. For teachers earning $95,794, the payouts could’ve resulted in a boost that would have pushed them over the $100,000 mark.
The payouts are a central part of the current agreements, which also include a 1.5 per cent raise over three years and a one per cent l ump- sum payment. The deals were reached after a tense round of negotiations in 2015 that saw teachers launch a work- to- rule campaign.
But the Wynne government was already increasing spending on teachers. In January 2013, the government lifted a freeze on their salaries; Wynne’s political opponents accused her of catering to a powerful bloc of voters one year before an election. According to the auditor general’s report in 2014, that move resulted in Wynne handing $ 468 million back to teachers. Six months later, the government agreed to boost the salaries of teachers in the Elementary Teachers’ Federation by two per cent.
After the Liberals won a majority in 2014, Wynne vowed “no new money for compensation increases” for teachers. One year later, the current agreements were ratified.
With a provincial election set for June 7, 2018 — and the Liberals dead last in early polling — the number of teachers on the 2017 Sunshine List may be set for another plateau.
Last week, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation became the last of the education unions to ratify agreements that will take them through 2019. Over two years, teachers and support staff are set to see a salary increase equal to four per cent.
“( Wynne) is tracking at 12 per cent in the polls,” Van Geyn said. “She can’t afford for a bloc not to come out. She’s going to spend our money to buy that support.
“That’s what the Sunshine List tells us this year.”
THE UNIONS KEEP SCREAMING POVERTY AND SAYING THEIR TEACHERS ARE UNDERPAID. IT’S HARD TO KEEP MAKING THAT ARGUMENT WHEN YOU SEE SO MANY PEOPLE ON THE SUNSHINE LIST. — CHRISTINE VAN GEYN, ONTARIO DIRECTOR OF CANADIAN TAXPAYERS FEDERATION