Alberta Teachers' Strike: Who is Right?

Author: Tim Platnich

Date: October 12, 2025

Revised: October 13, 2025

Alberta K-12 teachers have grievances which include: pay and working conditions. Regarding pay, they argue they are underpaid. Let's analyze that a bit.

Teachers argue that their pay has not kept up with inflation. Their existing pay scale was negotated and set by a collective agreement ratified in June, 2022 covering the school years of 2020/21 to 2023/24 (three years). According to a news article by CBC, under that agreement, currently a teacher in Alberta with 5 years of post-secondary education has a starting minimum salary of $65,135 and a maximum salary (after 9 years) of $101,009. It appears, according to this article, that these amounts included a 14.1% increase in earning since 2019 (to 2024) with the last increase occurring in September 2023. This compares to a 20.8% increase in the consumer price index (CPI) over 2019-2025 according to figures from the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA). An AI google search suggests that the cumulative increase in CPI over 2019 to 2024 was 25.7%. I am not sure why the ATA would understate inflation so I don't know the correct figure. In any event, it appears that teachers' real earnings have lost about 6% to inflation using ATA figures.

To re-establish their pay levels from the last collective agreement, correcting for inflation, they would need a pay increase of at least 6%. This is one way to determine the merit of their demanded pay increase. [Note: the ATA has not actually publicly stated what their demanded pay increase is.] The Provincial government is offering a 12% pay increase over 4 years. This may or may not keep up with inflation over the next 4 years. If inflation is less that 12% over the next few years, teachers will make up for lost ground. It is estimated that inflation going forward will be about the Bank of Canada's targeted rate of 2%. If this holds true, the teachers will make up 4% of the 6% lost to inflation.

The Alberta government has prepared a unified salary grid showing teacher salaries at present, if unified, and what they would be after the proposed 12% increase.

Another approach to assessing the fairness of Alberta teachers' pay is to compare it to the pay of teachers in other provinces. This is also addressed in the CBC article. According to ATA numbers, as referenced in the CBC article, Alberta's 2023 teachers' salaries do not compare favourably to other provinces. However, as pointed out by the Alberta government, the salaries of some of the Provinces used by the ATA reflect agreements reached between these Provinces and their teachers in 2025. So, Alberta 2023 minimum salaries are middle of the pack compared to BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario and maximum salaries are on the low side if 2025 salaries from other Provinces are included . The Alberta government offer, according to the government, will, by 2027, place maximum salaries above the average for the 5 compared provinces. It will also place Alberta the highest in all pay bands of the Western provinces if looked at net after taxes.

Comparing salaries with other provinces can be relevant in two respects. First, it may be a broad test of fairness, provided that apples are compared with apples. One would have to take into account relative costs of living, tax rates, and such. Second, to the extent that there is a contest for teachers, each province must be competitive with pay in order to attract and retain teachers. This is as close as we can get to competition when dealing with the public sector. Given Alberta's relatively low cost of living compared to BC and Ontario; low tax burdens; and general attractiveness evidenced by net inflows of people; arguably Alberta does not need to compete at the highest levels for teacher salaries. Provinces experiencing net outflows of residents, like BC, may have to pay more to retain and attract teachers.

Another approach to consider regarding the fairness of teacher's salaries is comparing their pay to that of other professionals. Teachers have about 200 operational days of work. i.e. 200 work days per year. At $100,000 per year (the current approximate topped-out amount after 9 years of experience for teachers with 5 years of post-secondary education) this works out to $500 per work day. A quick Google search suggests that this day rate compares with: physiotherapists; vets; associate dentists; and crown prosecutors. Note however these comparable positions will show a much greater annual salary as people employed in these sectors work more than 200 days per year. With the proposed increase of 12%, the top amount earned for a teacher with 5 years of teacher education after 9 years will be $114,811 according to the government's unified grid. This equates to about $574 per day.

Broken down into an hourly wage, assuming an 8 hour workday, teachers currently at the higher end of the salary grid make about $62.50 per hour. At a starting teacher salary of $65,000, this works out to be about $40.60 per hour. By comparison, first year medical residents make about $49,000 per year or about $38.18 per hour. Medical residents reading this blog post will laugh at this hourly rate as my experience with such residents suggests they make far less than this if you factor in all of their call work. One can question whether hourly rates really make sense for salaried professional employees.

Medical GPs, after overhead, earn between about $130,000 and $218,000 per year. A GP typically will have an undergraduate degree taking 4 years to obtain; plus 3-4 years of med-school depending on the school attended; and 2 years of residency.

According to Goole's AI Overview, solo practitioners and lawyers in small firms in Alberta make on average about $52,000 per year. Of course, earnings can vary widely and this is just an average. This works out to about $25 per hour. Ouch. I hope this is not true. We used to pay our receptionist (law office) more than that. Lawyers typically will have a minimum of 7 years of university education.

Another aspect of teachers' pay that should be mentioned relates to teachers' pensions. After 5 years of service, Alberta teachers are eligble for a pension. The pension plan is a defined benefit plan. Defined benefit plans are the gold standard for pension plans and generally do not exist in Alberta outside of the realm of public employees. The amount of pension received upon retirement depends on a number of factors including age, length of service and the top five years of salary level. Teachers are required to contribute to the plan and their contributions are matched by the government. Roughly, it seems, if a teacher retires at age 55, with 30 years of service and five years of salary at $100,00, the teacher will receive about $45,000 per year for life, indexed partially for inflation. For someone without a pension, like a lawer or doctor, assuming a return of 5% on investments, the lawyer or doctor would have to save and invest about $900,000 in order to receive $45,000 of yearly income upon retirement. Over 30 years this would require about $30,000 per year of RRSP contributions (including both contributiions and returns on contributed amounts).

Well, maybe that's enough about the issue of teachers' pay.

Let's talk now about working conditions. The media suggests that teachers have several concerns in this regard. A big one is class size. Is there a an optimal class size? What does optimal even mean? If money was no object, the smaller the class size the better for both teacher and student. From the student's perspective it means more one on one time with the teacher. From a teacher's perspective it means less work: less tests to grade; less assignments to review; less report cards to issue; and less parent communications; all adding up to less hours worked. But money is an object. Taxpayers care about costs. Governments understand that they must allocate their revenues among several competing expenditures. Alberta Health takes up approximately 38% of the government budget. It is argued in many circles that health care expenditure must increase dramatically. Contrasted to this, the Alberta K-12 operating costs in the latest budget are projected to be $9.9 Billion. This is out of total government projected revenue of $73 Billion - about 13.6% of the government budget. These two areas of expenditure are the largest and make up over 50% of government expenditures the balance largely consisting of employment and income support, public safety and infrastructure (including the building of schools).

If we assume expenditure allocation is a zero-sum game, more money to education means less money somewhere else. Some believe that this can be avoided by increased taxes (revenue) and/or increased borrowing. Yes, these are options, but are they palatable to the electorate?

Back to class sizes. It is often reported that average class sizes are about 30. Hasn't this size of class always been so? Are not classrooms designed and built to accommodate this number of students? Even if so, it is argued that the make-up of students in these classes are more work. Students are more diverse in their abilities. Some are ESL. Some have learning disabilities. Some are disruptive. Has this not always been so? Some teachers argue that yes, it has always been so but things have changed. They no longer have the same tools to deal with these issues. For example, regarding disruptive children, corporal punishment - even shaming - is taboo. Principals can't or won't expel troublesome students. Parents are more the enemy than a resource to deal with problem students. All of this leads to teacher anxiety and burn-out. Perhaps these are all genuine concerns - I believe they are. Are smaller class sizes the answer to these multi-faceted problems. I don't see how. Some say that more teachers' aides are the answer. This appears to be a cheaper solution than more teachers or more classrooms. If physical classrooms are already to capacity, how are smaller class sizes to be accommodated in the near term?

Let's move on to another issue. Do the above grievances warrant a strike? Or, put another way, are these issues best resolved in the context of a strike. I submit not for several reasons. First, as a doctor pointed out in an op-ed I read (I forget which news source, maybe the Calgary Herald), educating children is every bit as critical to their welfare as medical care. Doctor's aren't allowed to strike, ethically or perhaps even legally. Why should teachers be allowed to strike ethically or legally? Why should children be held hostage for teachers' demands? Second, on an issue like pay, couldn't binding arbitration be the answer? Apparently, this is the case in Manitoba. In respect of other issues, that really are policy oriented, should the ATA be setting education policy or should a government elected by all Albertans - and not just teachers - be setting policy?

The government says that in addition to the pay increase discussed above, it plans to hire 3,000 more teachers over the next 3 years - 1,000 per year. This is in addition to a proposed additional $1.6 Billion in targeted classroom support and increased spending for new schools and the modernization of existing schools.

Hopefully, the forgoing gives the reader some facts and perspectives concerning the existing teachers' strike.

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