Compensation increase: Economic stability dividend

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 60, No. 1, January February 2018, Pages 55-56 News

Effective 1 February 2018, physicians will receive an across-the-board increase of 0.4% to all MSP fees, as well as to service, salary, and sessional contract ranges and rates within those ranges. This is in advance of the 0.5% annual general increase that will be applied on 1 April 2018, as negotiated in the 2014–2019 Physician Master Agreement (PMA).

The Economic Stability Dividend shares the benefits of economic growth between physicians and the province contingent on growth in BC’s real gross domestic product (GDP). A Letter of Agreement in the PMA triggers additional increases for physicians when BC’s real GDP exceeds the prediction of an independent panel of economists that advises the Ministry of Finance. Statistics Canada reported that the BC economy grew by 3.5% in 2016, exceeding the panel’s forecast of 2.7%. There is one remaining opportunity for the Economic Stability Dividend under the term of the 2014–2019 PMA.

Additional information is available at https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017FIN0030-001883.

. Compensation increase: Economic stability dividend. BCMJ, Vol. 60, No. 1, January, February, 2018, Page(s) 55-56 - News.



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