Child-care workers in Manitoba will be eligible for a pension plan starting Dec. 1, as part of a Workforce Stability Strategy, Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh announced.
“Child-care workers have said the protection and stability of a pension plan is important as a key part of our strategy to recruit new workers as well as keep those who are already providing great care and early learning for children,” said Mackintosh. “We want to make sure more people discover that child care is a rewarding and satisfying career.”
Manitoba will be the only province outside of Quebec to offer a province-wide plan to child-care workers. Resources will be available to child-care centres and home-based providers as follows:
• for centre-based workers, the province will match employee payments of four per cent of salaries to a defined-contribution pension plan;
• for home-based child-care providers, the province will reimburse 50 per cent of annual RRSP contributions up to $1,700; and
• for both centre-based workers and home-based providers, the province will provide a retirement benefit equivalent to four days pay per year of service to a maximum of 10 years at age 65 (or from 55 to 65 with age and years of service totalling at least 80).
Full-time child-care centre staff working an average of 30 hours or more per week will be eligible immediately and must join after two years. Part-time staff will be eligible after two years of previous employment based on specific requirements for hours worked.
Centres that already offer a pension plan will be eligible for reimbursement. When fully implemented, the province will provide up to $6.6 million per year to fund the program. Information packages and orientation sessions with details of the plan will be available to facilities soon.
The pension plan will supplement a 49 per cent increase in wages for front-line early-childhood educators since 1999, bringing their starting salary to $32,000 per year. Manitoba’s early-childhood educator wages are the second highest in Canada. Overall, workforce initiatives have helped attract over 2,000 more child-care workers in the last five years, as reported by child-care centres.
The pension plan is one part of Family Choices: Manitoba’s Five Year Agenda for Early Learning and Child Care, launched in April 2008. Notably, Family Choices committed to funding 6,500 more child-care spaces and 35 new child-care centre sites. To date, funding for 3,500 spaces and 29 sites has been announced. There are 6,500 child-care workers employed in centres and nursery schools, plus another 471 workers offering child-care services in homes.
