Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General

Public Sector Employers' Council

Public Sector Overview

The people working in B.C.'s public sector provide a wide-range of services, including administrative, environmental, scientific, technical, health and social services, to name only a few.

  • The BC public sector employs approximately 370,000 people.
  • About 300,000 are unionized workers employed in the public service, at Crown corporations and agencies, and in the K-12, post-secondary, health and community social services sectors.
  • To date, almost three-quarters of collective agreements have been successfully renegotiated under the 2010 mandate covering about 180,000 people.
  • An increase of 1% in total compensation for all unionized public sector employees costs the Province approximately $196 million.
  • If applied to non-union and management groups, this increases to $237 million.
  • Over 99% of the unionized public sector could be bargaining in 2012.

Public Sector Compensation Base
(total compensation base = 23.7 billion)

B.C. Public Sector Total Compensation Base $23.7 Billion

Data for Chart: Health - $11.6 B (49%) ; Education (K-12) - $4.5 B (19%); Public Service - 2.5 B (10%); Universities - $1.8 B (8%); Crown Corporations - 1.8 B (7%); Colleges and Institutes - $1.0 B (4%); Community Social Services - $0.6 B (3%); Total Compensation Base - $23.7 B

Public Sector Employee Headcount
(number of people employed in each sector)

B.C. Public Sector Headcount 370,000

Data for Chart - Health - 156,605 (42%); Education (K-12) - 81,642 (22%); Public Service - 35,252 (10%); Universities - 32,208 (9%); Crowns - 20,698 (6%); Post Secondary - 29,017 (8%); Community Social Services - 12,868 (3%); Total Headcount - 370,000