Pay Equity Imbalances in Long Term Care

S	eniors' Issues Today

July 2000

Pay Equity Imbalances in
Long Term Care

Highlights:

We support pay equity but there is a serious imbalance in the treatment of facilities
Current disparity must be remedied to avoid cuts to resident care and services
The solution is to fund all facilities equitably

Pay Equity Affects Care

In the long term care sector pay equity is a care issue.

This becomes very clear when you realize that two seniors with similar needs but living in two different facilities could receive widely different care. Why? Because government funding to the long term care sector has not been equitable.

What this means is that many facilities are using valuable care and service dollars to cover their pay equity obligations. Others have received full pay equity funding from the government and have more funds at their disposal to provide services.

All this will unfortunately lead to a deterioration in the quality of service provided by those facilities that have been shortchanged by the government as they find themselves unable to meet increasing resident care needs.

Same Facilities - Different Treatment

Pay equity legislation directed employers to use one of three different methods of comparison to determine their pay equity obligations to staff: job-to-job, proportional, or proxy.

Nursing homes, which are generally for-profit, were able to take advantage of the proxy method of comparison because they typically have insufficient numbers of male comparators in their workplace. To date, proxy employers are receiving 100% of their proxy obligations up to 1998 and they are not required to maintain pay equity.

Homes for the Aged, generally not-for-profit, had a sufficient number of male comparators to complete the job-to-job method of comparison. To date, most job-to-job employers have received much less than 50% of their assessed pay equity obligations (and some have received nothing at all) and there is a requirement to maintain pay equity.

This means an expanding and never-ending financial responsibility.

This is a huge gap - proxy employers (nursing homes) have received 100% of their pay equity funding and job-to-job employers (homes for the aged) have been paid less than 50%. In dollar terms, this means that homes for the aged have been shortchanged by over $38 million!

The government cannot walk away from its responsibility to help all long term care facilities meet this imposed financial burden.

Restoring the Balance

We believe a workable, fair solution is possible. We are proposing a process that will remedy the disparity and bring all long term care facilities to the same pay equity funding level.

First, the average pay equity funding that is being provided to nursing homes must be extended to all long term care facilities. This can be accomplished by eliminating the existing pay equity funding provisions and replacing them with an increase of $5.40 to base funding.

Second, government must commit to ongoing funding of those facilities operating under the job-to-job method of comparison. This will serve to eliminate the disparities between proxy and job-to-job employers.

These strategies are a short-term fix to a complex situation. There are broader, long- term issues, such as legislative amendments, capping pay equity obligations, price differentials and other salary related concerns that must be addressed. Otherwise, the gap will continue to widen.

Consumers Right to Quality Care

Government imposed pay equity obligations must not cut into the care budgets of long term care facilities. Ontario's seniors deserve to receive the same level of service regardless of which facility they live in.

We urge the government to take the necessary steps to level the playing field between providers by ensuring that all facilities are funded equitably. If the gap is not eliminated, the future of seniors care in Ontario will be jeopardized.

Copies of our position paper Equity and Fairness: Pay Equity Issues in the Long Term Care Sector are available. Please contact:

Donna Rubin
Chief Executive Officer, OANHSS
905-851-8821 extension 230
drubin@oanhss.org

C	ontact OANHSS

Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes & Services for Seniors
7050 Weston Road, Suite 700, Woodbridge, Ontario L4L 8G7
(P) 905-851-8821
(F) 905-851-0744

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OANHSS members include not-for-profit providers of long term care, services and housing for seniors in Ontario.
Members include municipal and charitable long term care homes, non-profit nursing homes,
seniors' housing projects and community service agencies.