Hospitals, Public Health and Schools Account for Majority of Growth Treasury Board Secretariat
The Ontario government today released the salaries of Ontario Public Service and Broader Public Sector employees who were paid $100,000 or more in 2020, in accordance with The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996. Growth in this year’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure list was driven largely by increases in the Hospitals & Boards of Public Health and School Boards sectors.
“We know that Ontarians are relying on their government now, more than ever, during this pandemic to keep them safe and deliver the critical services they rely on, like health care and education,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Finance. “Our government remains committed to ensuring that Ontarians have sustainable public services now and for future generations.”
Almost 75% of the growth of the Public Sector Salary Disclosure is due to increases in the Hospitals & Boards of Public Health and School Boards sectors. Registered Nurses contributed to approximately 60% of the increase in the Hospitals & Boards of Public Health sector this year. Additionally, teachers contributed to 97% of the increase in the School Boards sector.
Compensation as captured in the disclosure list can reflect overtime payments, as well as growth or natural progression through salary ranges, promotions, severance payments, one-time performance-based payments and payments required on retirement.
The pandemic created significant demands on many parts of the public service to support Ontarians. Staff in many sectors, notably health care, worked extraordinary hours to help keep Ontario safe. Pandemic-related payments, such as significant overtime hours and pandemic pay, resulted in higher incomes year-over-year for some employees, including the potential to surpass the $100,000 threshold.
As part of the government’s commitment to transparency, The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996 requires organizations that receive public funding from the Province of Ontario to make public, by March 31 each year, the names, positions, salaries and total taxable benefits of employees paid $100,000 or more in the previous calendar year.
The act applies to the provincial government, Crown agencies and corporations, Ontario Power Generation and subsidiaries, publicly funded organizations such as hospitals, municipalities, school boards, universities and colleges, and not-for-profit organizations that receive $1 million or more, or receive between $120,000 and $1 million if the provincial government funding they receive is 10% or more of their gross revenues.
“Our government’s top priority is ensuring the health and well-being of all Ontarians,” said Bethlenfalvy. “We are also delivering on our promise to the people of Ontario to be transparent and accountable; respecting their tax dollars in order to deliver critical frontline services.”
The 2020 data is available in a downloadable, machine-readable, sortable, searchable table format on Ontario.ca/salarydisclosure, making it transparent and accessible to the people of Ontario.
Quick Facts
- The growth in size of this year’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure list is mainly attributed to increases in the Hospitals & Boards of Public Health sector (59% increase since 2019) and School Boards sector (55% increase since 2019).
- The average reported salary decreased slightly to $125,871 in 2020 from $127,396 in 2019.
