Canadian public sector employees continue to outpace private sector workers in defined benefit pension plan membership, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute.
It found 86.7 per cent of Canadian public sector workers were covered by a registered pension plan compared to only 21.8 per cent in the private sector, citing data from Statistics Canada’s 2024 labour force survey. Among public sector employees who are enrolled in a pension plan, 91.5 were enrolled in a DB plan, compared to 40.7 per cent of private sector workers.
Read: Public sector workers more likely to have benefits, paid leave than private sector: StatsCan
As a result, public employees retire, on average, 2.2 years earlier than the country’s private sector workers.
Notably, just 4.7 per cent of public workers were enrolled in a defined contribution plan, compared to 34.6 per cent of private sector employees.
Government employees were also paid 4.8 per cent higher wages, on average, than workers in the private sector in 2024. They were also able to take more time off for personal reasons (15.7 days compared to 9.3 days for private sector workers).