When $300,000 isn’t enough

I heard today that the Fraser Health Authority is giving its CEO Nigel Murray a $30,000 bonus on top of his $300,000 annual salary.  Put that up against the cuts the Authority is making to services for addicted youth and seniors, among others. 

 Remember that hospital housekeeping workers, who are the first line of defense against super bugs and other infections for patients, had their wages lowered when their jobs were contracted out to a large multinational.  Contrast their current wage of $14.10 per hour ($29,328 per year, IF they can get 40 hours per week) with Murray’s $158.65 per hour ($30K bonus included, for a 40 hour week).   

 Evidence in a newly-released report from the UK calculated the real value to society of a range of different professions; bankers and cleaners, childcare workers and advertising executives, tax accountants and people who recycle household waste.  The study indicates that for every pound or dollar that they earned, hospital cleaners contributed 10 times that amount in benefits to society.  Childcare workers generated seven to 10 times their wages in social and economic benefits, but bankers on million dollar salaries and bonuses actually destroyed social value.  (In BC the majority of child care workers make less than $20 per hour.)

 This is our money, folks.  I’d like a little better value for mine.

Topics: Employment & labour, Health care, Poverty, inequality & welfare