Salaries should rise by 3.7 per cent in 2024, according to Quebec employers

Workers are shown during the inauguration of the first battery manufacturing plant for medium and heavy vehicles in Quebec at Lion Electric in Mirabel, Que., Monday, April 17, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Salaries should increase by 3.7 per cent in 2024 in Quebec, according to employer forecasts for all sectors combined.

The workers in the sectors expected to benefit most from the increase are those in professional and technical services, according to the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés, which presented this report on Thursday at a news conference and discussion with human resources experts.

Employers expect few wage freezes for their employees.

"The sector that stands out is professional and scientific services. And the sector with the lowest projected increase is public administration," said Manon Poirier, executive director of the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés.

According to these human resources experts, employers in all sectors, including small and medium-sized enterprises, must take into account the high expectations of workers generated by inflation and the relative scarcity of labour.

However, the number of job vacancies is actually falling, and the employer-employee imbalance, which favours employees, is diminishing, experts pointed out during the discussions. They report a lot of movement of workers over the last 18 to 24 months, but this phenomenon is diminishing.

For employers who feel they cannot afford to grant such salary increases, the human resources experts point out that there are other ways of retaining employees, such as offering teleworking, bonuses and leave.

The order notes another phenomenon: increases for union members could be lower than those for non-union members for the coming year, for example.

Poirier explains this phenomenon by the fact that collective agreements are generally negotiated for three or five years. The agreements signed three years ago, for example, did not yet take account of workers' demands linked to inflation and higher pay rises in other sectors.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 21, 2023.