Child-care workers to get pension benefits
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/10/2010 (5861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
MANITOBA’S 7,000 child-care workers — including those who operate home-based daycares — will soon qualify for pension benefits.
“This is the first provincewide pension plan (for daycare workers) outside of Quebec — perhaps on the continent even,” said Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh. Coverage will start Dec. 1.
Mackintosh said the child-care sector, aided by a 50 per cent increase in wages in the past decade, has been doing a better job at recruiting workers in recent years, but a bigger effort was needed to retain them. The government hopes a guarantee of a retirement income will help.
All child-care workers will qualify, Mackintosh said in an interview Wednesday. “Unlike some other pension plans, this is for full-time and part-time (employees).”
The program is expected to cost the province up to $6.6 million a year once it’s fully implemented.
Workers employed by child-care centres and nurseries will be able to enroll in a defined-contribution pension plan. Their contributions — four per cent of salary — will be matched by the province. The plan will be open to child-care assistants as well as educators.
For home-based providers, the province will reimburse 50 per cent of annual RRSP contributions up to $1,700. Mackintosh said the child-care sector was adamant current long-term employees also be recognized, so the province has agreed to pay such workers a lump-sum payment upon retirement, equivalent to four days of pay per year of service to a maximum of 10 years.
“There is a gender issue that’s important here as well,” Mackintosh said of the pension initiative. “Disproportionately, child-care workers are women.”
Full-time child-care centre staff working an average of 30 hours or more a week are eligible to enroll immediately and will be required to join a plan 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.
Information packages will be going out shortly and orientation sessions will be held to explain the pension plans.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca