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Originally Posted by spoon.ek9
can't really call it a wage cut when it was offered as a bonus all along. the extra 14-15% was offered when there was a huge shortage of pharmacists. since that shortage no longer exists, it makes sense that they would remove that bonus.
does it suck for pharmacists? hell ya it does. but to act like this was a wage increase instead of a bonus is wrong imo. there are however some pharmacists who didn't realize it was a bonus at all and those are the ones who are hit the hardest by this.
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I understand the wage increase was due to a shortage but to call it a bonus is incorrect. Technically it was a "market adjustment".
When community counterparts are making ~%20 more to start, the adjustment was required to entice pharmacists into the hospital.
This adjustment actually put the new grads closer to what can be made in the community and those with 6 years of experience, more than what community pharmacists make *IN THE LOWER MAINLAND*. Unfortunately with the union being BC wide, there is still a large difference between wages when you move North.
So, who should we compare our wages to? Across Canada? Even with the current wages, BC Pharmacists are a few percent under the national average, with this wage decrease, they will be >15% below national average.
Should we compare to our american counterpart - you don't want to see the differences.
Quote:
Originally Posted by spoon.ek9
since that shortage no longer exists, it makes sense that they would remove that bonus.$
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Since this market adjustment was due to a shortage, if the shortage is gone, you would assume the market would adjust itself and wages to follow. So what definition of shortage would you use? I believe the minister noted the increase in # pharmacists, I can't find the exact number stated however I can tell you that an increase in number does not equal an increase in FTE's. Due to the shortage at the hospital I work at, we have only 2 full time pharmacists at the moment.
Maternity leaves (female dominated profession now) and retirement (~20% of pharmacists are in the retirement window), leaves staff shortages. Yes, jobs are posted. No these jobs are not filled. It has been noted that >50 clinical pharmacist jobs are posted in BC, the only applicants at the hospital I work at are unqualified for the position. Is there still a shortage?
It was discussed this wage decrease will save the government $8 million per year. I suppose it is up to you to decide if this is negligible to the >$62 billion budget. It is all relative and we pay a price to live in BC, but the idea is to get people informed about this and understand the value of pharmacists. I do note that there is very minimal claimed overtime by pharmacists and when someone calls in sick, there is no replacement (like physicians). Pharmacists are encouraged to claim overtime to show the financial impact of our extra work. Suffice to say that the impact is large.
If you are interested in the actual wages made by pharmacists (no, they do not make $80/hr), you are welcome to view it here:
Health Sciences Association of BC :: Health science professionals
Anyways, I do not mean to attack your post, but explain where I come from on the issue. Many posts/people/comments like this wage roll back to a patient on insulin wrt their blood sugar. When you give insulin (wages), the diabetic is fine, so naturally you may assume you can withdrawal insulin (like in cats), but the diabetic patient still has diabetes and will soon have complications.