The 2025 provincial budget took some modest steps to reinvest in public housing, our libraries, schools and universities, but it fell short on fixing the real problem facing public sector workers: every year we are expected to do our work for less pay.
“It’s a horrible situation. This government rewards public sector workers with a pay cut every year they continue to work,” said CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador President Sherry Hillier. “Workers who carried us through the pandemic have lost nearly 10% in real pay since 2020.”
A personal care assistant who feeds, washes and cares for long term care residents earned $46,293 in April 2020, a wage that when adjusted for inflation would be $53,975 in January 2025. This reflects the 16.6% increase in the Consumer Price Index for St. John’s between April 2020 and January 2025. Instead, a personal care assistant only takes home $49,101, which is $4,874 less than they would if their pay had kept up with inflation.
“Although the budget promises $10 million for recruitment and retention of doctors and nurses, nothing was announced for the workers who do the cooking, cleaning, changing and care for patients,” said Hillier.
CUPE NL was pleased to see an investment of $10 million for new provincially owned homes in Western and Central NL, and a commitment of $26 million to repair units at our provincial housing corporation. “We have units sitting vacant in housing crisis because NL Housing cannot recruit enough tradespeople to repair them,” said President Hillier. “This leads to wasted public dollars as the government contracts out maintenance and repairs that could be done cheaper and better by employees in the facility. We can save money and get people housed by simply fixing the pay issue to attract enough workers.”
CUPE NL did give the government credit for another reinvestment into the provincial library system. “Our library members are pleased to see another $500,000 in funding for our libraries, after years of below inflation funding. Every extra dollar makes such a difference,” said Hillier.