Education Minister Fassbender, you have publicly stated that the B.C. Teachers Federation is asking for an eight per cent increase in salary and a 6.5 per cent increase in our benefits package. In this, you are correct.
However, you then took out a full-page ad stating that we are asking for a combined 14.5 per cent. You and Christy Clark have both used this number as the reason why mediation will not work in contract negotiations between the BCTF and the government’s bargaining agent, the B.C. Public School Employers Association.
Minister Fassbender, your math is wrong.
In fact, any student who has successfully completed math 8 will be able to tell you that you are wrong. Eight per cent of salary and 6.5 per cent of benefits cannot simply be added because they are percentages of different amounts.
For example, a teacher who earns $80,000 in salary would also cost the province about $20,000 in benefits. Eight per cent of $80,000 equals $6,400 in salary increases over five years, while 6.5 per cent of $20,000 equals $1,300 in increased benefit costs over those same five years, for a total increase of $7,700.
To calculate the total percentage increase, that $7,700 must be divided by the combined $100,000 of salary and benefits for a combined increase of only 7.7 per cent over five years — not 14.5 per cent as you have publicly stated many times.
Perhaps this was just a math error, understandable in someone who took math 8 many years ago. But perhaps you are trying to manipulate the B.C. public into thinking that the BCTF is asking for an unreasonable increase.
I am publicly asking you to correct your math error, much as I ask my students to correct their errors, and I am asking you and Christy Clark to stop interfering with the bargaining process.
The two mediators who have so far refused to help in negotiations have done so because government has put unworkable restrictions on the bargaining process, not because the BCTF is asking for unaffordable gains.
The correct math shows that the BCTF is asking for 7.7 per cent over five years, just over a 1.5 per cent increase per year and well within the zone of affordability.
Darin Johaneso
Vernon
