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  3. Why did the LP pay scheme need to be restructured?

Why did the LP pay scheme need to be restructured?

A two-tier pay scheme for LPs has existed since 1990.  Under that two-tier scheme, Toronto LPs are paid more than National LPs.  The higher Toronto pay grid is sometimes referred to as the “Toronto differential.”    The current situation is as follows:

 

  • LP-02s on the Toronto pay grid have three more lock-steps at the top of the grid.  The top LP-02 lock-step on the Toronto pay grid is $23,964 higher than the top LP-02 lock-step on the National pay grid, based on the 2021 pay rates currently in effect.

 

  • LP-03s on the Toronto pay grid have two more lock-steps at the top of the grid.  The top LP-03 lock-step on the Toronto pay grid is $26,427 higher than the top LP-03 lock-step on the National pay grid, based on the 2021 pay rates currently in effect.

 

  • LP-04s in Toronto have a higher pay range than National LP-04s.  The top of the Toronto LP-04 pay range is $17,227 higher than the top of the National LP-04 pay range, based on the based on the 2021 pay rates currently in effect.

 

  • The Toronto and National pay grids for LP-00s, LP-01s and LP-05s are identical.

 

This pay discrepancy has had a long-term negative impact on the lifetime earnings and pensions of National LP-02s, LP-03s and LP-04s.  

 

Some history helps to understand how this situation came about.  Between 1987 and 1990 the Department of Justice’s Ontario Regional Office (ORO) in Toronto experienced serious recruiting and retention problems.  Lawyers were leaving the ORO at an alarming rate, and the DOJ was having trouble recruiting new lawyers.  Many DOJ lawyers in the ORO were taking employment with the Province of Ontario which had higher rates of pay.

 

Despite its historic opposition to regional rates of pay, Treasury Board decided to address the ORO recruiting and retention problem by approving a regional rate of pay for the ORO on June 6, 1990.  The cost of living in Toronto was not a factor in this decision.  

 

The new Toronto regional rate of pay meant that DOJ lawyers at the LP-02, LP-03 and LP-04 levels in Toronto and in satellite offices in the surrounding area would earn $12,000 - $16,000 more per year than their colleagues elsewhere in the country who were paid on the DOJ national scale.