Factors That Can Affect Personal Support Worker’s Salary Ranges

Personal support worker salary ranges, like any other career, start low and work up. There are a few factors involved in how quickly they can increase or simply how high a personal support worker can begin a job at. These are wide ranging and can mean the difference between just getting paid and earning a living.

One of the major factors in determining where the personal support worker salary ranges begin at is the amount of schooling and experience they enter with. Typically, a recent graduate with less than one year of experience will start at an hourly rate of $10.00 to $12.00. This also greatly depends on the area of the country that the employer is located in as the cost of living may be higher or lower than other locations.

As with any career, the more experience, the higher the pay. Personal support workers with 20 or more years of experience can earn between $15 and $20 per hour but again does not factor in location or continuing education. Along with the addition of continuing education, more skills are added, thereby making the personal support worker that much more valuable to an employer by boosting the level of client care that much further.

Depending on location, the personal support worker salary ranges may be affected by the employer’s need for someone who is bilingual. The ability to speak, read and write in another language can be invaluable to an employer located on or near the border of another country. This can be a major factor in areas such as Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

There are ways an individual can affect the personal support worker salary ranges in the markets that they are competing in. By choosing a specialty to go along with their standard certifications, such as working with seniors or those clients with disabilities, can make them much more valuable to certain employers.

As with any job, the major contributing factor in salaries is experience. An experienced personal support worker will always fetch a higher hourly rate than a non-experienced personal support worker or someone with very little actual on the job background. This is no different in any respect than any other position available in any field and should be viewed as such.

The best way to insure that the proper hourly rate is being received is by doing some research online. There are many websites that have salary calculators available to tell you what can be expected for an hourly rated based on area, years of experience and educational background. In doing this type of research, one can be assured that whether looking in the area they already live in or maybe searching out that next great adventure, they will be receiving the wage deserved for the service they provide.

Are Personal Support Workers Simply Cheap Labour in Ontario?

By Cynthia Herron

Are Personal Support Workers that work in Ontario being used a cheap labour by the Ontario government?  That seems to be the overwhelming consensus of Personal Support Workers across the province.  They feel that they are being used by the provincial government to make up for the shortfall in funding to the home-care support system throughout the province.  Here is a fantastic article that encapsulates the entire situation from the perspective of a Personal Support Worker in Toronto.  Here is the article.

What do you think?  Is this a valid perspective?  Let us know.

SEIU Video Extolls Virtues of Personal Support Workers

By Cynthia Herron

I was recently sent a link to a video posted by the health care related union SEUI (Service Employees International Union) extolling the virtues of Personal Support Worker’s.

While the video can come across as a bit self-congratulary, it does leave the viewer with a good video that celebrates the work that personal support workers across Ontario, Canada and the world do.  There are testimonials from personals support workers and their clients.  All in all, this is a video that is worth the few minutes it takes to watch.

Click here to see the video.