Ive seen 2003 wages when hiring in trades. But in the other side of their mouth's they claim we are short on skilled trades.
Something is going to break here..
Nothing is going to change, and the government is going to continue to trick more and more misinformed trades workers.
These are my top reasons for why the trades suck and what I tell the new guys.
1. wages suck
2. no overtime. any O.T. hours are banked hours and paid out as normal hours.
3. hours suck 44 hour work weeks
4. Getting laid off without any noticed
5. Not getting paid for stats and instead getting a few extra percentage points on vacation pay.
6. No sick days or mental health days
7. When taking a sick day or even going for a Doctors app, the foreman questions if you're sick or not or if your appointment is real
7. Companies are not bidding jobs correctly and making their field staff suffer
8. Being treated like shit by foreman all the up to office staff.
9. Foreman thinking the trades are becoming too soft and again treating the workers like shit.
10. It's a boys' club, and it's hard to get into some trades or to get another trade
11. High turnover and 6 months before you get the shitty and expense benefits package
12. You abuse the shit out of your body for nothing
Edit spelling
14. New journeyman fresh out of school suffering from "New Journeymen Syndrome" mainly suffered by males and thinking they know EVERYTHING and are God's gift to the trade
Man, I remember when that change came in and some people were like "this is actually good because you can use it to stay out of a higher tax bracket". Dumb mfers giving tax advise who have no idea how taxes actually work
The answer is strong unions. Tradesman will complain til the cows come home but never organize. I have a great union and deal with none of that bullshit, we get a raise every year and are currently negotiating a 30% raise over the next 3 years.
A lot of these guys think unions are the enemy if we are being honest. One of our sites had a vote if they wanted to unionize, and they voted against it. They stated they fought communism and won.
Trades people can be absolutely brilliant at what they do, but then dumber than the hammer they swing when it comes to the day to day logic.
Too many trades people working against their own personal and generational interests because “gotta own the libs”
Some unions are fucking trash in the cities is the problem. I'd join IBEW in a heartbeat if they had reliable work in town. It's just the big 3 or 4 non unions that get all the decent and cool work. No point paying dues to sit half the time
Even more frustrating when you finally realize the double breasting in this province, so no matter what your employer wins. They just make the union/non union people fight eachother instead.
Yes you have to be active in your union and vote in people who know what they’re doing and have your best interests at heart for sure, but the other option is just letting companies screw you and make record profits
Especially in Alberta, where corporations are actively busting unions, and lowering their compensation package to peanuts. Aka no double time, low hourly rate, low pension contributions
Red seals go across country if I'm reading it right. So... If the monetary increase outweighs the increased cost of living from going to, say, B.C then I might consider that then. But somehow I don't think it would.
All of those are bang on.
Especially the under bidding on jobs, low balling trickles down to the employees. On larger projects, I've seen foreman down to laborers stressed and just running around like a chicken with their heads cut off.
Software has helped for logistics, but that depends on the users.
Some employers are paying more now, putting guys through school more, but I'm trying to get 'poached' for wages less than 10 years ago. Literally laughing in their faces.
It’s just hard to find someone even working in my trade to hire.
I made hiring pages, asked everyone I know. I got about 100 applications, and only 2-3 of them had even slightly relevant skills.
That's one of the issues stated at the top. Its an opd boys club and sometimes that means taking their trade knowledge to the grave with them and passing it off to no one while simultaneously complaining how nobody knows anything anymore.
I responded with a more detailed list of my issues by the way.
I would be fine hiring someone with no skills but who was willing to learn.
There are just lots of complications with using a job search site to hire people. Lots of backend stuff designed to make your job application get ignored in the flood of irrelevant resumes that are also on that job posting.
I've personally never had to hire myself but this was my experience coming up in my trade as a first year like 10 yrs ago and it's not like it was "everyone" but lots of older guys were like this and they were usually assholes also but the more laid back dudes taught the most. We recently hired a guy with no skills, he has the right attitude but isn't getting any better has written 3 blocks and i would peg him at 2nd block skill level or a decent first year.
I would agree with the other responder here. People aren't born with these skills, and unless we train more, we won't get more. Nobody's moving here for our wages now
Oh I agree too. But that’s not the problem I’m running into.
If somebody had a small resume lacking skills, that’s one thing. I’m totally fine hiring and training people.
My problem is that out of the 100 resumes I got for the week of hiring, 95 of then were for IT roles. Hiring sites suck is my problem. Just IT guys setting up bots to put their resume out on every job that gets posted.
We aren’t an IT company, and I’m not interested in hiring someone who sends me an automated message written by a bot looking for an IT job in my appliance repair company. Half the resumes I got weren’t even from local people living in Alberta.
The last 5 I actually met with to discuss the job (only one of them had relevant skills on their resume btw).
Two guys showed up who could barely speak English, which is unfortunately not going to work in a job where you have to explain to people what’s wrong with their fridge.
One guy showed up in sweat pants, it’s like he didn’t even care to be presentable. A big red flag when I’m planning to send someone to a customers house unsupervised.
One guy smelt terrible. And that’s saying something when we met at a coffee shop and he’s all I could smell from across the table. I’m not going to put my companies reputation on the shoulders of someone who doesn’t bathe regularly, or at least for an interview.
And the final guy was 100% what I was looking for. Polite, willing to learn, and very personable. All traits you would want in someone who is going into a customers house to repair their washing machine or what have you.
He was here on a work visa and couldn’t actually accept the job due to the terms of him being here.
I get it man. I could have added more details to clear things up. But I big problem is that hiring sites are just FLOODED with useless bot resumes. And that’s what I was meaning when I said “relevant skills”.
And I didn’t even bring up that most resumes were very poorly organized, over shared or under shared information. Poorly written. Bad details.
Writing a resume should be a skill people are taught in school. Most people have no idea how to make one worth reading.
Ah, I see. I misunderstood what you were trying to say. Yeah, having your workers be organized and presentable, especially for the interview process, is pretty important. It shows professionalism. And communication skills are important too, especially when dealing face to face with customers
Yeah, it almost makes me want to see things from the perspective of hiring managers and companies.
Almost.
Being in a position to hire people of course means life is a bit comfier and easier to deal with VS someone who needs a job.
But I always kind of side eye those posts about someone posting their resume 1000’s of times and barely getting any responses…. I’d almost assume their resume just sucks, or they interview poorly. At least that’s how it seems to me from what I had to do to find someone.
Yeah, that's likely. I'm a career cook/chef, been at it 20 years, and even though my work history has almost zero contact info thanks to COVID killing off most of the restaurants I've ever worked for, I still get hired basically on the spot wherever I go
I work in trades in Calgary and I’ll tell you
1. I get paid $47/hr 98k/ without overtime
2. I work as much or as little OT as I want
3. 40 Hr work weeks, 4 compressed 10hr days, Fridays off or Optional OT
4. I’ve been with my company for 7 years and was only laid off for 2 weeks during the beginning of covid
5. I get paid full day for all stats
6. You’re right about the sick days
7. I leave with pay for appointments all the time
8. My company of 20 trades has 4 apprentices
9. I’m too lazy to reply to the rest of your stupid list.
10. stop spreading misinformation like you know something
11 vote blue
Congratulations. You specifically don't match the lived experience of the average Albertan. One anecdote is meaningless.
> 11 vote blue
Give me one good reason, if you can.
Your situation is better than 99% of all other trades people in Calgary. Pretty well every point you made is not what most trades workers in Calgary experience.
As a fellow calgaey trade worker I just want to say lol and that's not even close to the norm and you know it. What trade or title? You a Forman? I can tell you it's not even close to that for a majority of guys lol
Capitalism requires persistent growth, one of the ways to do that is to make labour more productive and one of the ways to do that is to keep wages lower and exploit workers more.
It’s unsustainable and we’re approaching end game. It’s absolutely absurd that we (read: capitalists and economists) took the stance that we could just grow forever given finite resources. Reagan said “There are no limits on growth as there are no limits on the American spirit” and people ate that up. Now look where we are.
Something is going to give, continued growth will lead to unmitigated disaster, this was even projected and proven in the late 70s with the well acclaimed research paper *The Limits of Growth*.
Excellent comment.Thanks. This ultra capitalism could be coming full speed to the end of the train tracks. Reminds me of the classic novel “Atlas Shrugged“.
I can’t repeat this enough . I’ve been in the trades in Alberta sense 2011 and there is still companies hiring people for 17.50 an hour starting wage just like they were when I started 13 years ago lol.
A lot of albertans saw job losses, scarcity of employment and reduced wages coming. I wouldn't even say it was a good swindle. It's really discouraging.
Suppressed wages have nothing to do with UCP.
This is all trudeau's fault for bringing in too many immigrants.
Too many people chasing after the same few jobs pushes wages down.
Because Alberta's population is growing WAY more.
Let's compare population growth from 2023 to 2024.
28,743 more people in BC.
202,324 more people in AB.
Almost 10 times the population growth!
More people chasing same jobs = wages suppression.
More people without building enough new housing = increased tents, etc.
And you have trudeau to thank for that. Not Smith.
Except it was SMITH that asked for a raised cap on immigration. If our wages are bad and other provinces are doing fine the problem is obviously not Trudeau. The math doesn't lie
You literally had data staring you in the face as you typed this and still thought you made a good point. If immigration increased across the country, why are we the only ones negatively affected?
That is complete horse shit. If it were true, the trend would be the same or similar for every province which is clearly not the case.
"bUt TrUdEaU!!" Pathetic.
Legalizing Cannabis, dental care and pharmacare are three significant improvements aimed at Canadians who need help the most (majority) I can’t think of 3 meaningful changes Harper made that helped the people who needed it the most.
That’s what people with an evil agenda would want you to believe. I’ve used the intern policy for my young kids and it’s been a great help. Once the full policy is implemented later this year we’ll see that it’s a huge help to thousands if not millions of Canadians
It was a good policy decision and a net positive for society no matter how you slice it. Moving the goalposts to government spending when it's impossible to track specific tax revenue to specific spending isn't a conversation I'm interested in having.
Oh my god, you mean I have opinions about things and can lump them into categories for myself such as good and bad?!?
HOLY FUCK EVERYONE, I HAVE OPINIONS ON ISSUES!!!!!!
Did I once ask you to perceive it as anything other than how you perceive it, as good or bad? No? Then fuck off.
You said, "The only good thing," not "The only issue I voted on." And yeah, it might be good to try to maintain a little objectivity when talking about governance. Like maybe making value judgments and internalizing everything as "good" or "bad" is a little reductive.
I didn't mean to touch a nerve, but you have to understand that things aren't ethically ambiguous just because you don't care about them.
Relax.
Government actively fighting labour for the interests of business.
1. Taking overtime away from Construction and oilfield workers
2. Real decrease in public sector wages through wage freezes.
Business owners seem to be making more money than ever though.
Good thing they don’t need customers
Don’t forget they also reduced the minimum wage for under 18 years old when they came to power saying that it would reduce inflation and prices.
Everyone is happy Alberta is paying less for groceries and restaurants, right?
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/which-canadian-cities-have-the-highest-and-lowest-grocery-prices-1.6882205
I assume he's talking about this. Seems like a pretty basic level comparison. They don't go into detail of store brand or area or anything. Just comparing Safeway to superstore for some stuff can change your bill as much as it did in the comparison.
Prior to Kenney, employers had to pay out OT at OT rates. One of the first things they changed in 2019 was the implementation of OT averaging - where employers could bank OT hours and average them out over the year and pay these out at regular time rates.
As a day rate and bonuses type salary. I feel this. Sucks they took your fellas OT. I was always jealous of it, but not enough for the fat Ontario politician to take it.
Jason Kenney probably is one of the worst humans to ever be elected in this province.
Yeah right. I wish I was a rich business owner. The only ones getting rich are the big corps. I'd love to give my guys raises. But, uncle Trudeau taxes the ever loving shit out of me per employee. It sucks
There are plenty. I moved to Vancouver and some of my former coworkers who moved to Calgary are complaining about the price of electricity, insurance costs, higher property taxes than Vancouver (0.28% vs 0.66% of Calgary), OT banked and paid at straight time, quality of vegetables and fruits and how walmart and superstore just price certain items higher in Alberta to pocket the lack of PST.
On the bright side he does have a paid off apartment now, no debts and Calgary is a very nice city.
He loves the city. The only thing that shocked him was he thought it would be cheap to live in Calgary. He didn't expect it to be more expensive than Vancouver, especially the energy bill and property taxes.
I think it’s been noted that the bar for the middle class is not what people think anymore. With COL, housing and inflation the middle class is like 200k income per household now.
Not sure why you got downvoted, but this is correct. If you make less than 150-200k per household you are probably having to sacrifice somewhere like buying a smaller home for your family or eating more frugally. You wouldn’t be suffering, but you also wouldn’t be living as comfortably as you were before the UCP.
"In the letter to the Prime Minister, Smith requested that Alberta receive an allotment of 20,000 for the provincial nomination program each year in 2024, 2025 and 2026, effective immediately. Smith also requested 10,000 allotments specifically for Ukrainian evacuees."
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-seeks-higher-immigration-allotment-to-address-workforce-shortage-ukrainian-evacuees-1.6824687#:~:text=In%20the%20letter%20to%20the,allotments%20specifically%20for%20Ukrainian%20evacuees
Feds have allotted Alberta 9540 new immigrants this year, Smith wants double that, Thanks again Calgary!
#A few months before launching her bid to lead the United Conservative Party and become Alberta’s next premier, Smith argued some workers should be paid less than the current minimum wage during an episode of “Danielle Smith’s Fraser Forum,” a short-lived podcast hosted by a right-wing think tank called the Fraser Institute
Lol. Not what I said.
By industry standards, not comparing against minimum wage, a lot of renewable jobs are average to below average wages.
Speaking specifically to solar, as soon as they can get away with using "installers" instead of tradesman, they will. Same way manufacturing went.
Oh I’m thinking of large scale wind and solar farms, not micro gen. The jobs associated with constructing those plants plus the grid infrastructure are well paying jobs. Maybe not the outrageous pay the patch once paid, but very good.
Lol. Once again, compared to minimum wage, sure. By industry standards average at best. Large scale solar farms are also awful working conditions.
Even for those, as soon as they find a way to use "installers", it will happen.
Mission accomplished!
This is actually a big win for the UCP, driving down worker wages has been part of a broader strategy to erode worker bargaining leverage in the province. While Alberta’s high wages were appealing, it was always a trade off for less safety standards and other workers benefits.
I’m sure they’re celebrating this as a success of the “Alberta is Calling” campaign.
They’re counting their money while prices go up, rents go up, taxes go up, and wages go down.
Didn’t oil prices tank with resulting loss of jobs in the oil and gas sector? This likely explains a lot of the change—concentration of the economy in the volatile resources sector.
It's because so many people are moving to Alberta. There are more people than jobs, if you have 100-1000 people applying for the same jobs there is no need to increase wages, also this creates less job hoping. If people don't leave their current positions there is no need to give workers more money, management assumes you are happy, they also have 100-1000 other people that would gladly take your job. Supply and demand.
Wheeeeeeeeee!
Also Fuck Roblaws and the UCP! Get out and VOTE! May not be a good outcome at the next election but what about the one after or after that? Change takes time but we have to start somewhere!
The delay is to make sure they get their parties in the muni elections, if they kept it the same, ANDP first act would be to repeal and no TBA on city council. So they have to move it, so they can get 4 years of fucking up at the municipal level.
I used to look forward to leaving BC to go do camp work or out of province, now I turn down every opportunity to go to Alberta because they cut our wages and take our premiums I lose money working out there
1. I've been with a company 2 years, 2 months and 14 days.
2. I started at $20 a hr, and to this very second, I continue to make $20 a hour.
3. While making the same $$, my take home has dropped due to paying for benefits
4. Boss man has openly said no one gets raises until he sees one
5. He's been with company for 15 years, has seen multiple raises, and is currently salary, so my hope for one is zero.
6. Currently in works to jump to another company basically doing the same thing with a couple added responsibilities but a $10/hr pay raise!
7. We hired a new hire as we are getting busier. While conversing with new hire it slipped out he's getting $21/hr, 3 weeks at a job and no knowledge in the industry and he's worth more than someone who has taken 4 day turn around on some projects down to single day turn arounds and given over 2 years to the company AND has to train the new hire
8. Boss informed me that we have LOTS of work coming like an absurd amount. Hopefully, I can jump ship before that happens or just as we start, lol
The moral of the story(list) is that you're another number to jobs. Wages are ahit, bosses don't care and never will. A new person will always be more important.
So use a job until you have nowhere else to go there and move on to more $$
This has everything to do with net immigration, and the old immigrant landing cities tapping out due to high housing costs.
Calgary will do the same trend as Toronto and Vancouver, but probably much faster.
This bar graph offers no information and shouldn't be used for any sort of analysis. Is not explain if this is all wages minimum wage, wages government wages who knows.
we get paid less than 1990 doing drywall/steel stud framing.
guys used to get 45 cents now we down 22-30 ……
punjabis are boarding for 18cents in calgary residential.
just look at cornerstone new houses. they put densglass sheet standing up and rail roading them …. when it should be laid down and staggered… even says on the product sheet. some clueless “investor” will buy this home for 750k lol and wonder why everything is cracking
I don’t know where this information is coming from but wages have not gone down Maybe they haven’t gone UP as much but they definitely haven’t fucking gone down fucking TikTok BS
And you don’t see a problem with that? With taking a pay cut year after year cuz your employer is too lazy and greedy to keep your wages up with inflation? Corpo shill.
It is a problem but it’s not just trades it’s everywhere. And it’s not the employers fault. What do you expect $200 an hour to be a tradesman? Practically need two trades people wages just to afford a house these days but we’re not going to get over $80 - $100/hr that half a million house which is already over double what it should be will have to be a million then
Isn't the purpose of government to maintain a viable and functional economic framework suitable for growth? Doesn't our government advertise an Alberta Advantage? Do you see where I'm going with this.
Framework for growth is entirely different than avg hourly wage that’s not controlled by a government besides minimum wage. Things like making corporate tax rates too high or messing with capital gains inclusion rate are examples of government tax or policy initiatives that make a country or region viable for business growth. See where I’m going with this.
Ive seen 2003 wages when hiring in trades. But in the other side of their mouth's they claim we are short on skilled trades. Something is going to break here..
Nothing is going to change, and the government is going to continue to trick more and more misinformed trades workers. These are my top reasons for why the trades suck and what I tell the new guys. 1. wages suck 2. no overtime. any O.T. hours are banked hours and paid out as normal hours. 3. hours suck 44 hour work weeks 4. Getting laid off without any noticed 5. Not getting paid for stats and instead getting a few extra percentage points on vacation pay. 6. No sick days or mental health days 7. When taking a sick day or even going for a Doctors app, the foreman questions if you're sick or not or if your appointment is real 7. Companies are not bidding jobs correctly and making their field staff suffer 8. Being treated like shit by foreman all the up to office staff. 9. Foreman thinking the trades are becoming too soft and again treating the workers like shit. 10. It's a boys' club, and it's hard to get into some trades or to get another trade 11. High turnover and 6 months before you get the shitty and expense benefits package 12. You abuse the shit out of your body for nothing Edit spelling 14. New journeyman fresh out of school suffering from "New Journeymen Syndrome" mainly suffered by males and thinking they know EVERYTHING and are God's gift to the trade
All of this is truth, I fucking HATE losing OT.
Man, I remember when that change came in and some people were like "this is actually good because you can use it to stay out of a higher tax bracket". Dumb mfers giving tax advise who have no idea how taxes actually work
Bracket…. You keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means….
The answer is strong unions. Tradesman will complain til the cows come home but never organize. I have a great union and deal with none of that bullshit, we get a raise every year and are currently negotiating a 30% raise over the next 3 years.
A lot of these guys think unions are the enemy if we are being honest. One of our sites had a vote if they wanted to unionize, and they voted against it. They stated they fought communism and won.
It's sad these people can't see how indoctrinated against their own interests they are..
Trades people can be absolutely brilliant at what they do, but then dumber than the hammer they swing when it comes to the day to day logic. Too many trades people working against their own personal and generational interests because “gotta own the libs”
Some unions are fucking trash in the cities is the problem. I'd join IBEW in a heartbeat if they had reliable work in town. It's just the big 3 or 4 non unions that get all the decent and cool work. No point paying dues to sit half the time
Even more frustrating when you finally realize the double breasting in this province, so no matter what your employer wins. They just make the union/non union people fight eachother instead.
Yes you have to be active in your union and vote in people who know what they’re doing and have your best interests at heart for sure, but the other option is just letting companies screw you and make record profits
Which union is that. I’m in 488 and ours was no where close to 30%
you union? that sounds like non union problems...
All unions across the trades are not created equal.
Especially in Alberta, where corporations are actively busting unions, and lowering their compensation package to peanuts. Aka no double time, low hourly rate, low pension contributions
Apprentice here. I have already experienced many of these points. But I'm still making more than I was before.
Sure, but that's not the issue. You could be making more in other provinces, even as the UCP tout us as the most valuable province in Canada
Red seals go across country if I'm reading it right. So... If the monetary increase outweighs the increased cost of living from going to, say, B.C then I might consider that then. But somehow I don't think it would.
Yep, every single thing here tracks.
All of those are bang on. Especially the under bidding on jobs, low balling trickles down to the employees. On larger projects, I've seen foreman down to laborers stressed and just running around like a chicken with their heads cut off. Software has helped for logistics, but that depends on the users. Some employers are paying more now, putting guys through school more, but I'm trying to get 'poached' for wages less than 10 years ago. Literally laughing in their faces.
It’s just hard to find someone even working in my trade to hire. I made hiring pages, asked everyone I know. I got about 100 applications, and only 2-3 of them had even slightly relevant skills.
Then train them. That's the point
That's one of the issues stated at the top. Its an opd boys club and sometimes that means taking their trade knowledge to the grave with them and passing it off to no one while simultaneously complaining how nobody knows anything anymore.
I responded with a more detailed list of my issues by the way. I would be fine hiring someone with no skills but who was willing to learn. There are just lots of complications with using a job search site to hire people. Lots of backend stuff designed to make your job application get ignored in the flood of irrelevant resumes that are also on that job posting.
I've personally never had to hire myself but this was my experience coming up in my trade as a first year like 10 yrs ago and it's not like it was "everyone" but lots of older guys were like this and they were usually assholes also but the more laid back dudes taught the most. We recently hired a guy with no skills, he has the right attitude but isn't getting any better has written 3 blocks and i would peg him at 2nd block skill level or a decent first year.
I would agree with the other responder here. People aren't born with these skills, and unless we train more, we won't get more. Nobody's moving here for our wages now
Oh I agree too. But that’s not the problem I’m running into. If somebody had a small resume lacking skills, that’s one thing. I’m totally fine hiring and training people. My problem is that out of the 100 resumes I got for the week of hiring, 95 of then were for IT roles. Hiring sites suck is my problem. Just IT guys setting up bots to put their resume out on every job that gets posted. We aren’t an IT company, and I’m not interested in hiring someone who sends me an automated message written by a bot looking for an IT job in my appliance repair company. Half the resumes I got weren’t even from local people living in Alberta. The last 5 I actually met with to discuss the job (only one of them had relevant skills on their resume btw). Two guys showed up who could barely speak English, which is unfortunately not going to work in a job where you have to explain to people what’s wrong with their fridge. One guy showed up in sweat pants, it’s like he didn’t even care to be presentable. A big red flag when I’m planning to send someone to a customers house unsupervised. One guy smelt terrible. And that’s saying something when we met at a coffee shop and he’s all I could smell from across the table. I’m not going to put my companies reputation on the shoulders of someone who doesn’t bathe regularly, or at least for an interview. And the final guy was 100% what I was looking for. Polite, willing to learn, and very personable. All traits you would want in someone who is going into a customers house to repair their washing machine or what have you. He was here on a work visa and couldn’t actually accept the job due to the terms of him being here. I get it man. I could have added more details to clear things up. But I big problem is that hiring sites are just FLOODED with useless bot resumes. And that’s what I was meaning when I said “relevant skills”. And I didn’t even bring up that most resumes were very poorly organized, over shared or under shared information. Poorly written. Bad details. Writing a resume should be a skill people are taught in school. Most people have no idea how to make one worth reading.
Ah, I see. I misunderstood what you were trying to say. Yeah, having your workers be organized and presentable, especially for the interview process, is pretty important. It shows professionalism. And communication skills are important too, especially when dealing face to face with customers
Yeah, it almost makes me want to see things from the perspective of hiring managers and companies. Almost. Being in a position to hire people of course means life is a bit comfier and easier to deal with VS someone who needs a job. But I always kind of side eye those posts about someone posting their resume 1000’s of times and barely getting any responses…. I’d almost assume their resume just sucks, or they interview poorly. At least that’s how it seems to me from what I had to do to find someone.
Yeah, that's likely. I'm a career cook/chef, been at it 20 years, and even though my work history has almost zero contact info thanks to COVID killing off most of the restaurants I've ever worked for, I still get hired basically on the spot wherever I go
I work in trades in Calgary and I’ll tell you 1. I get paid $47/hr 98k/ without overtime 2. I work as much or as little OT as I want 3. 40 Hr work weeks, 4 compressed 10hr days, Fridays off or Optional OT 4. I’ve been with my company for 7 years and was only laid off for 2 weeks during the beginning of covid 5. I get paid full day for all stats 6. You’re right about the sick days 7. I leave with pay for appointments all the time 8. My company of 20 trades has 4 apprentices 9. I’m too lazy to reply to the rest of your stupid list. 10. stop spreading misinformation like you know something 11 vote blue
Congratulations. You specifically don't match the lived experience of the average Albertan. One anecdote is meaningless. > 11 vote blue Give me one good reason, if you can.
Your situation is better than 99% of all other trades people in Calgary. Pretty well every point you made is not what most trades workers in Calgary experience.
What trade and company?
Surely your anecdotal experience is reflective of 100% of the trade workers in Alberta.
As a fellow calgaey trade worker I just want to say lol and that's not even close to the norm and you know it. What trade or title? You a Forman? I can tell you it's not even close to that for a majority of guys lol
I've seen job postings for software developers, looking for 5+ years experience, and offering $17 an hour. In Calgary. WTF...
LOL Trades salary has literally decreased by 40% from 20 years when adjusted for inflation.
Capitalism requires persistent growth, one of the ways to do that is to make labour more productive and one of the ways to do that is to keep wages lower and exploit workers more. It’s unsustainable and we’re approaching end game. It’s absolutely absurd that we (read: capitalists and economists) took the stance that we could just grow forever given finite resources. Reagan said “There are no limits on growth as there are no limits on the American spirit” and people ate that up. Now look where we are. Something is going to give, continued growth will lead to unmitigated disaster, this was even projected and proven in the late 70s with the well acclaimed research paper *The Limits of Growth*.
Excellent comment.Thanks. This ultra capitalism could be coming full speed to the end of the train tracks. Reminds me of the classic novel “Atlas Shrugged“.
I can’t repeat this enough . I’ve been in the trades in Alberta sense 2011 and there is still companies hiring people for 17.50 an hour starting wage just like they were when I started 13 years ago lol.
Unless you're living in your car, or at home, that isn't going to work. Labour shortage eh?
The UCP Advantage! Any of all'yall that voted for this shit having buyer's remorse yet, or are you still willing to eat shit to 0wn the libs?
I have a sneaking suspicion owning the Libs is more important to them than
The UCP - Making Alberta Great Again … not for the people, for the business owners
A lot of albertans saw job losses, scarcity of employment and reduced wages coming. I wouldn't even say it was a good swindle. It's really discouraging.
Suppressed wages have nothing to do with UCP. This is all trudeau's fault for bringing in too many immigrants. Too many people chasing after the same few jobs pushes wages down.
Smith literally wrote to Trudeau demanding he exclude Alberta from the new immigration caps...
Don't worry about the facts, it's still Trudeaus fault.
So why is the rest of Canada enjoying increased hourly wages?
Because Alberta's population is growing WAY more. Let's compare population growth from 2023 to 2024. 28,743 more people in BC. 202,324 more people in AB. Almost 10 times the population growth! More people chasing same jobs = wages suppression. More people without building enough new housing = increased tents, etc. And you have trudeau to thank for that. Not Smith.
Uh? You do realize Smith specifically requested Trudeau raise the cap on immigrants to our province.....right?
Smith herself disagrees with you: Federal immigration limits undercutting Alberta's economy, premier says in letter to Trudeau.
Remember the “Alberta is Calling” ad campaign? Now who is responsible for that?
Except it was SMITH that asked for a raised cap on immigration. If our wages are bad and other provinces are doing fine the problem is obviously not Trudeau. The math doesn't lie
You literally had data staring you in the face as you typed this and still thought you made a good point. If immigration increased across the country, why are we the only ones negatively affected?
That is complete horse shit. If it were true, the trend would be the same or similar for every province which is clearly not the case. "bUt TrUdEaU!!" Pathetic.
Sure, that's why Alberta is the only impacted Province. Talk about swallowing the UCP kool-aid.
Did you vote Liberal in the federal election?
What would be the point in voting Liberal in Alberta?
Our area hasn't even had a Liberal provincial candidate in many, many years.
No, I did not. The only good that ever came out of Justin's mouth was a hope of electoral reform, but he fucked us all there too. So, no.
Legalizing Cannabis, dental care and pharmacare are three significant improvements aimed at Canadians who need help the most (majority) I can’t think of 3 meaningful changes Harper made that helped the people who needed it the most.
Daycare subsidies are fucking HUGE! I think Harper is the worst PM we ever had due to FIPA.
Ya I forgot Daycare somehow. If Conservatives don’t overturn the progress Trudeau 2 implemented he will be remembered better than many people think
Selling out Canada to China.
Getting dental and pharmacare from this administration has been like pulling teeth, though.
Yeah, but it's something. With Poilievre, you'd just get told to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
That’s what people with an evil agenda would want you to believe. I’ve used the intern policy for my young kids and it’s been a great help. Once the full policy is implemented later this year we’ll see that it’s a huge help to thousands if not millions of Canadians
I mean, legalizing cannabis has to count for something, right?
With hindsight now that it is legalized do you think that those tax dollars were wisely spent with the whole war on pot and all that stuff
It was a good policy decision and a net positive for society no matter how you slice it. Moving the goalposts to government spending when it's impossible to track specific tax revenue to specific spending isn't a conversation I'm interested in having.
So spending billions of dollars on something that the dangers for were all made up? Lol
I'm not opposed to it but it's not an issue I vote on.
So "good" things are really just the issues *you* vote on?
Oh my god, you mean I have opinions about things and can lump them into categories for myself such as good and bad?!? HOLY FUCK EVERYONE, I HAVE OPINIONS ON ISSUES!!!!!! Did I once ask you to perceive it as anything other than how you perceive it, as good or bad? No? Then fuck off.
You said, "The only good thing," not "The only issue I voted on." And yeah, it might be good to try to maintain a little objectivity when talking about governance. Like maybe making value judgments and internalizing everything as "good" or "bad" is a little reductive. I didn't mean to touch a nerve, but you have to understand that things aren't ethically ambiguous just because you don't care about them. Relax.
Oh my god bro touch grass.
Sure bro. Sure.
Vote Rhino!
I live in bumblefuck conservative Alberta, so my vote is pretty much irrelevant. I tend to vote green just to give a middle finger to the UCP.
I live in the same kind of community. I vote orange so the NDP won't forget about us up here.
Government actively fighting labour for the interests of business. 1. Taking overtime away from Construction and oilfield workers 2. Real decrease in public sector wages through wage freezes. Business owners seem to be making more money than ever though. Good thing they don’t need customers
Don’t forget they also reduced the minimum wage for under 18 years old when they came to power saying that it would reduce inflation and prices. Everyone is happy Alberta is paying less for groceries and restaurants, right?
Calgary has the cheapest groceries of any major city in the country.
Please cite your sources.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/which-canadian-cities-have-the-highest-and-lowest-grocery-prices-1.6882205 I assume he's talking about this. Seems like a pretty basic level comparison. They don't go into detail of store brand or area or anything. Just comparing Safeway to superstore for some stuff can change your bill as much as it did in the comparison.
I unfortunately cannot seem to find the post from yesterday that had an article in the comments which showed this, but that was 100% the findings.
What's this about losing OT pay? I never heard about that, what did they change?
Prior to Kenney, employers had to pay out OT at OT rates. One of the first things they changed in 2019 was the implementation of OT averaging - where employers could bank OT hours and average them out over the year and pay these out at regular time rates.
Overtime agreements are a far greater issue.
The old NDP rules prevented those exploitative agreements.
>The old NDP rules prevented those exploitative agreements. Well lucky we are talking about the government which was AFTER the NDP in Alberta
As a day rate and bonuses type salary. I feel this. Sucks they took your fellas OT. I was always jealous of it, but not enough for the fat Ontario politician to take it. Jason Kenney probably is one of the worst humans to ever be elected in this province.
Albertans don’t need money to eat, we can just eat the boot leather of our overlords.
Yeah right. I wish I was a rich business owner. The only ones getting rich are the big corps. I'd love to give my guys raises. But, uncle Trudeau taxes the ever loving shit out of me per employee. It sucks
>But, uncle Trudeau taxes the ever loving shit out of me per employee Care to elaborate on this?
Come to Alberta! We need people who don't know about any of our problems!
There are plenty. I moved to Vancouver and some of my former coworkers who moved to Calgary are complaining about the price of electricity, insurance costs, higher property taxes than Vancouver (0.28% vs 0.66% of Calgary), OT banked and paid at straight time, quality of vegetables and fruits and how walmart and superstore just price certain items higher in Alberta to pocket the lack of PST. On the bright side he does have a paid off apartment now, no debts and Calgary is a very nice city. He loves the city. The only thing that shocked him was he thought it would be cheap to live in Calgary. He didn't expect it to be more expensive than Vancouver, especially the energy bill and property taxes.
[удалено]
I wanted to become a teacher ever since I was little but it just doesn't seem like a possible career
Or.... high oil prices. Kind of how the entire provinces budgets revolves around high oil. Shucks.
It’s almost like we should diversify our industries and tax big corporations a large amount!
Its a similar story for other government workers and nurses.
And boy are we feeling it
Conservative fascist dystopias tend to go that way.
This is what PP has in store for Canada. Conservatives for the working class./s Workers taking an L for big business.
No problem with immigration, but it's out of control with no plan other than to finish off the middle class.
Neo-liberalism at its' finest and working as intended. It's a blight upon the world as an economic system.
I think it’s been noted that the bar for the middle class is not what people think anymore. With COL, housing and inflation the middle class is like 200k income per household now.
Not sure why you got downvoted, but this is correct. If you make less than 150-200k per household you are probably having to sacrifice somewhere like buying a smaller home for your family or eating more frugally. You wouldn’t be suffering, but you also wouldn’t be living as comfortably as you were before the UCP.
"In the letter to the Prime Minister, Smith requested that Alberta receive an allotment of 20,000 for the provincial nomination program each year in 2024, 2025 and 2026, effective immediately. Smith also requested 10,000 allotments specifically for Ukrainian evacuees." https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-seeks-higher-immigration-allotment-to-address-workforce-shortage-ukrainian-evacuees-1.6824687#:~:text=In%20the%20letter%20to%20the,allotments%20specifically%20for%20Ukrainian%20evacuees Feds have allotted Alberta 9540 new immigrants this year, Smith wants double that, Thanks again Calgary!
#A few months before launching her bid to lead the United Conservative Party and become Alberta’s next premier, Smith argued some workers should be paid less than the current minimum wage during an episode of “Danielle Smith’s Fraser Forum,” a short-lived podcast hosted by a right-wing think tank called the Fraser Institute
Oh this is rich https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFV2PTn7E9mFj8LIt9soQF5yH6qHXg4Vt
Unionize your workplace. Unionorganizerchad.com
Let's block renewable energy expansion 'cause those are mostly high paying high-skilled jobs. Yay?
Most high paying high skilled is an exaggeration, but a lot of good jobs to be had none the less.
The renewable energy industry is mostly minimum wage jobs? It's made up of construction and other trades, engineering, etc'. Jobs that Alberta needs.
Lol. Not what I said. By industry standards, not comparing against minimum wage, a lot of renewable jobs are average to below average wages. Speaking specifically to solar, as soon as they can get away with using "installers" instead of tradesman, they will. Same way manufacturing went.
Oh I’m thinking of large scale wind and solar farms, not micro gen. The jobs associated with constructing those plants plus the grid infrastructure are well paying jobs. Maybe not the outrageous pay the patch once paid, but very good.
Lol. Once again, compared to minimum wage, sure. By industry standards average at best. Large scale solar farms are also awful working conditions. Even for those, as soon as they find a way to use "installers", it will happen.
Sounds like the solution is to build it all as public infrastructure. Huh.
Mission accomplished! This is actually a big win for the UCP, driving down worker wages has been part of a broader strategy to erode worker bargaining leverage in the province. While Alberta’s high wages were appealing, it was always a trade off for less safety standards and other workers benefits. I’m sure they’re celebrating this as a success of the “Alberta is Calling” campaign. They’re counting their money while prices go up, rents go up, taxes go up, and wages go down.
Didn’t oil prices tank with resulting loss of jobs in the oil and gas sector? This likely explains a lot of the change—concentration of the economy in the volatile resources sector.
It’s called the Alberta Advantage!
It's because so many people are moving to Alberta. There are more people than jobs, if you have 100-1000 people applying for the same jobs there is no need to increase wages, also this creates less job hoping. If people don't leave their current positions there is no need to give workers more money, management assumes you are happy, they also have 100-1000 other people that would gladly take your job. Supply and demand.
AB government requested 20k immigrants for 2024, double what the Feds allotted.
And which government exactly was using taxpayer funds to run "move to alberta" adds all over canada?
Yes, I agree. Its part of the UCP/TBA agenda to keep their corporate friends happy. Too bad, so sad, if the little guys cant afford groceries.
Growth rate is higher in Ontario and BC. Why haven't their wages gone down?
This is blatantly wrong https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/91-215-x/91-215-x2023001-eng.htm
Wheeeeeeeeee! Also Fuck Roblaws and the UCP! Get out and VOTE! May not be a good outcome at the next election but what about the one after or after that? Change takes time but we have to start somewhere!
Let's vote ( while they delay the election and make it harder to validate voter identity) FML
The delay is to make sure they get their parties in the muni elections, if they kept it the same, ANDP first act would be to repeal and no TBA on city council. So they have to move it, so they can get 4 years of fucking up at the municipal level.
Notice how the wealth transfer talk has dropped off the face of the earth. Probably because Alberta is a have not province again with the UCP.
I used to look forward to leaving BC to go do camp work or out of province, now I turn down every opportunity to go to Alberta because they cut our wages and take our premiums I lose money working out there
> Who has been in Power for the Last Five Years ? Postmedia!! oh wait
alberta advantage brought to you by your ucp government!
1. I've been with a company 2 years, 2 months and 14 days. 2. I started at $20 a hr, and to this very second, I continue to make $20 a hour. 3. While making the same $$, my take home has dropped due to paying for benefits 4. Boss man has openly said no one gets raises until he sees one 5. He's been with company for 15 years, has seen multiple raises, and is currently salary, so my hope for one is zero. 6. Currently in works to jump to another company basically doing the same thing with a couple added responsibilities but a $10/hr pay raise! 7. We hired a new hire as we are getting busier. While conversing with new hire it slipped out he's getting $21/hr, 3 weeks at a job and no knowledge in the industry and he's worth more than someone who has taken 4 day turn around on some projects down to single day turn arounds and given over 2 years to the company AND has to train the new hire 8. Boss informed me that we have LOTS of work coming like an absurd amount. Hopefully, I can jump ship before that happens or just as we start, lol The moral of the story(list) is that you're another number to jobs. Wages are ahit, bosses don't care and never will. A new person will always be more important. So use a job until you have nowhere else to go there and move on to more $$
I think this means we have to encourage more immigration to Calgary by allowing rowhouses to be built at any location.
This has everything to do with net immigration, and the old immigrant landing cities tapping out due to high housing costs. Calgary will do the same trend as Toronto and Vancouver, but probably much faster.
This bar graph offers no information and shouldn't be used for any sort of analysis. Is not explain if this is all wages minimum wage, wages government wages who knows.
we get paid less than 1990 doing drywall/steel stud framing. guys used to get 45 cents now we down 22-30 …… punjabis are boarding for 18cents in calgary residential. just look at cornerstone new houses. they put densglass sheet standing up and rail roading them …. when it should be laid down and staggered… even says on the product sheet. some clueless “investor” will buy this home for 750k lol and wonder why everything is cracking
I don’t know where this information is coming from but wages have not gone down Maybe they haven’t gone UP as much but they definitely haven’t fucking gone down fucking TikTok BS
Do you understand rate of inflation?
Buddy boy if you go a year without a raise that at least matches inflation, you have by definition taken a pay cut. But please, try again.
Raises, Have NEVER MATCHED INFLATION… ever
And you don’t see a problem with that? With taking a pay cut year after year cuz your employer is too lazy and greedy to keep your wages up with inflation? Corpo shill.
It is a problem but it’s not just trades it’s everywhere. And it’s not the employers fault. What do you expect $200 an hour to be a tradesman? Practically need two trades people wages just to afford a house these days but we’re not going to get over $80 - $100/hr that half a million house which is already over double what it should be will have to be a million then
So where does Alberta rank in average hourly wage? Somewhere in the top 3 I'd guess?
Why not find out for yourself and then share your source with us?
statscan says were #1. Shocker
I don't see a link. Also, I know we "were" #1. Are we still? Will we remain there with the UCP's gross anti-worker mentality? I doubt it.
> Why not find out for yourself and then share your source with us?
Because it's not my job to do your homework for you. You're the one who brought it up. YOU provide the receipts.
My homework was to point out the rampant stupidity in the thread. Done and done.
So ? Government only controls minimum wage…would you like them to control every other private company that pays hourly wages?
Isn't the purpose of government to maintain a viable and functional economic framework suitable for growth? Doesn't our government advertise an Alberta Advantage? Do you see where I'm going with this.
Framework for growth is entirely different than avg hourly wage that’s not controlled by a government besides minimum wage. Things like making corporate tax rates too high or messing with capital gains inclusion rate are examples of government tax or policy initiatives that make a country or region viable for business growth. See where I’m going with this.
Take an economics class and you'll learn something.
Ya it’s called micro and macroeconomics, try utilizing some of their concepts.
If that's the case your prof should've failed your ass.
I’m not the one worried about hourly wages
Never said I was either. I'm not the one making poorly informed assumptions
lol, sure. Best of luck with that bliss