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The Fraser Institute is rolling out a series of reports attacking public sector workers, which glosses over the statistical evidence, and ignores previous research that counters their ideology.

The Fraser Institute reports do not take occupation categories into account, which means they compare the pay of doctors with retail store clerks. The wage of police officer, firefighter, teacher or nurse is compared with the wage of a security guard or restaurant server with the same age, gender, and other demographic characteristics.

CUPE economist Toby Sanger presented a more accurate picture in his Battle of the Wages study, which analyzed similar jobs in the public and private sector. This report, based on Statistics Canada data, shows that the difference in wages for similar jobs in the public and private sectors is miniscule.

Where differences do exist they can be explained by the pay gap between men and women. Women are paid slightly more in the public sector than women in the private sector. Meanwhile average public sector pay for men in similar jobs is lower than the private sector.

CUPE is committed to reducing these inequalities and raising all workers’ wages and pensions.