{"id":59109,"date":"2025-08-10T12:31:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/59109\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T12:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:31:18","slug":"pay-hike-for-canadian-armed-forces-members-long-overdue-says-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/59109\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay hike for Canadian Armed Forces members \u2018long overdue,\u2019 says expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government\u2019s decision to boost entry-level pay for Canadian Armed Forces<\/a> members is being praised by expert observers as long overdue.<\/p>\n

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On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will hike entry-level pay for Canadian Armed Forces<\/a> privates by 20 per cent for the regular force and 13 per cent for reservists.<\/p>\n

The new pay hikes will be retroactive to April 1 this year.<\/p>\n

Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said the pay increases were a long time in coming, especially at the lower level.<\/p>\n

He said that if the government is going to be spending a lot more money on defence, boosting pay \u2014 particularly at the entry level \u2014 is \u201ca good way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the Canadian Armed Forces\u2019 struggles with recruitment and recent reports indicating the military has seen a surge in hateful conduct and racism in the ranks, Hampson said it\u2019s wise to \u201cup the ante\u201d on salaries to encourage more people to sign up.<\/p>\n

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Hampson said boosting salaries alone won\u2019t get the government to the NATO target \u201cin the context of an economy that is obviously beginning to slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He cited new data shared by Statistics Canada Friday that said Canada shed 41,000 jobs last month.<\/p>\n

Carney also said that colonels and those in higher positions will receive an eight per cent raise and lieutenant-colonels and those below that rank will receive a 13 per cent raise.<\/p>\n

The pay hikes are part of a plan to boost recruitment and operational readiness.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAll members of the Canadian Armed Forces will receive a pay raise,\u201d Carney said Friday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese increases, in pay and incentives, will help us to revitalize and transform recruitment and retention, to bolster force readiness and to ensure that members in uniform have the confidence and certainty that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal bureaucrats told journalists in a technical briefing that the new compensation package is expected to cost around $2 billion annually. It\u2019s part of a planned $9.3 billion budget boost this year to get to NATO\u2019s defence spending benchmark of two per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n

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The government also said it\u2019s creating new military allowances and enhancing existing ones to help it retain personnel and drive up recruitment in a competitive job market.<\/p>\n

Those allowances include $50,000 in bonuses for people entering and working in what the government calls \u201cstressed occupations\u201d \u2014 critical jobs in sectors that are seeing too many vacancies.<\/p>\n

The government says staffing levels in 53 of 116 critical occupations, which include vehicle and maritime technicians, are now below 75 per cent.<\/p>\n

David Perry, president and CEO of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said the government has done \u201ca bunch of smart things\u201d on recruitment.<\/p>\n

He said it was wise to scale the pay increase because an across-the-board hike would \u201cprobably not really have been a smart use of additional funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore Canadians want to join the military, but current members keep leaving\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Defence Minister David McGuinty pitched a 20 per cent pay raise earlier this summer. The measures Carney announced Friday only increase pay for one tranche of members based on rank.<\/p>\n

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Perry said it\u2019s also a good idea to woo people into understaffed parts of the military with targeted incentives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that makes sense,\u201d he said, adding that he thinks the pay hikes will make a \u201csignificant difference\u201d in making entry level positions more attractive.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government\u2019s decision to boost entry-level pay for Canadian Armed Forces members is being praised by expert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,38881,38882,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-59109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canadian-armed-forces","10":"tag-canadian-military","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}