Ottawa approved pay hikes for 78% of federal employees in 2025: CTF
Government workers enjoy 4.8% wage premium over non-government workers says the Fraser Institute
Author of the article:Jane Stevenson
Published Jul 31, 2026 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 2 minute read
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill as seen from the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River. The active use pathway was reopened by the NCC after rehabilitation work was completed. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA
I see you and I’ll raise you.
So said the federal government last year when it rubberstamped raises for 78% of its employees, or 336,188 bureaucrats, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation who obtained access-to-information records showing as much.
Meanwhile, the same records showed departments barely met half of their own performance targets and only 0.14%, or just 596 employees, took a pay reduction.
“Taxpayers have every reason to question why the vast majority of bureaucrats are taking bigger paycheques when departments can barely pass their own test,” Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director, said in a statement.
“Federal bureaucrats shouldn’t feel entitled to more money every year just because they’re on the taxpayer payroll.”
The CTF says about 385,000 federal employees took a pay raise in 2024 and the government handed out more than one million pay raises between 2020 and 2023.
The federation says the government has continually refused to disclose how much these pay hikes cost taxpayers.
CTF says feds won’t say how much raises cost taxpayers
“Taxpayers are on the hook for another wage hike, but the government won’t tell Canadians the price tag,” Devin Drover, CTF General Counsel, said in a statement.
“That’s another failure of Canada’s broken access-to-information system. Taxpayers pay these wages and they have a right to know the bill.”
CTF says this isn’t the first time the feds have refused to disclose pay raise amounts after the federation launched legal challenges against CBC and the Bank of Canada for refusing to do so for its senior bureaucrats.
CBC logo on building
The CBC Radio Canada logo / sign on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations building in the 700 block HamiltonVancouver, May 28 2013. Gerry Kahrmann / PNG staff photo) ( Prov / Sun News ) [PNG Merlin Archive]
The federation says government employees are now taking larger salaries than their counterparts working outside of government.
“Canada’s government-sector workers (from federal, provincial, and local governments) enjoyed a 4.8% wage premium, on average, over their private-sector counterparts,” according to the Fraser Institute, which controlled for factors like age, gender, education and industry.
The government union, Public Service Alliance of Canada, who is negotiating new contracts for its members, has already called the federal government’s wage offers “insulting” and “unacceptable.”
“What’s really insulting and unacceptable is how much the bureaucracy costs taxpayers and how little it delivers,” Terrazzano said. “Prime Minister Mark Carney needs to shrink the federal bureaucracy to stop borrowing money and provide Canadians with the tax relief they need.”
The cost of the bureaucracy is expected to reach $79.4 billion in 2026 – more than during former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s last year in office in 2024-25, even after inflation.
The cost of the federal bureaucracy increased 80% between 2015 and 2024, according to the Public Accounts.
The feds rubberstamped raises for 78% of its employees or 336,188 bureaucrats in 2025 says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Read more.
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