Bulletin #1A - October 2015
Support Staff Benefit Program (SSBP)
What is Total Compensation?
What is Total Compensation? What does it include?
Did you know that your compensation includes not only your base salary, but also many other benefits
provided through the Collective Agreement? During the recent rounds of bargaining, the University of
Alberta has used a new model (total compensation) to look at employment costs. In addition to
salaries, a large portion, or $44.6 million, is spent on the Support Staff Benefit Program each year.
The chart below illustrates the value of the total compensation package for a Support Staff employee
with an annual salary of $66,000 (average of all benefited Support Staff).
Total Compensation Example
Benefit costs are based on employee with family coverage and an average
salary of $66,000
A. Base Salary
$66,000
77.1%
$3,920
4.6%
$1,267
1.5%
$6,277
7.3%
$65
0.1%
$8,093
9.5%
G. Total Annual Benefits
$19,622
22.9%
H.
$85,622
100%
(Includes salary, sick leave, annual vacation
and statutory holidays)
Benefit Program Components
B. Statutory benefits
(Canada Pension Plan, Employment
Insurance, WCB)
C. Survivor and disability benefits
(basic life insurance, AD/D, long-term
disability, critical illness)
D. Health Benefits
(Supplemental health care, dental, drug
plan, employee & family assistance,
health spending account, personal
spending account)
E. Negotiated Learning Benefits
(Remission of tuition and Human
Resources Development Fund)
F. Pension & Retirement Benefits
(PSPP and bridge benefits)
Total Annual Compensation
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Total Compensation Components
As shown in the table above, your Total Annual Compensation (H) includes the value of many
benefits, which add to your base salary. These are considered non-cash compensation items. On
average, these additional non-cash benefits add 23% per year to your total compensation.
Base Salary (A) is the annual amount paid to you before deductions for income tax, Canada Pension
Plan (CPP), Employment Insurance (EI) or voluntary deductions such as parking, Canada Savings
Bonds, United Way, etc.
Your base salary also includes a value for paid time away from work for sick leave, personal leave and
annual vacation. On average, support staff use just over seven days of casual and general illness leave
each year while annual vacation is based on years of service, beginning at three weeks per year up to
six weeks per year.
Statutory Benefits (B) are those such as the CPP, EI, and Workers’ Compensation (WCB). These are
costs that are paid by the University.
Benefit program components listed in total compensation total are those programs included in your
benefit program outlined by the Collective Agreement.
Survivor and Disability Benefits (C) protect employees and their families in the event of catastrophic
loss such as the loss of life, onset of a critical illness, or the onset of disability. These claims occur
infrequently but could have a major financial impact on a family.
Health, Drug and Dental Coverage (D) assists support staff and their families with the cost of dayto-day health-related expenses and supports the health and well-being of employees. Although the
majority of health-related claims are not a high financial risk to a family, these benefits do provide
access to health care products and services. The use of these benefits is much higher than for life and
disability benefits. Each employee with family coverage claims on average $3,550 for health and
dental benefits each year. Support staff and their families also have 24/7 access to the Employee &
Family Assistance Program (EFAP).
In addition to the variety of learning opportunities provided by the University, two negotiated
Learning Benefits (E), the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) and Remission of Tuition,
provide value by offering employees the opportunity to improve their skills and knowledge.
Pension and Retirement Benefits (F), including Bridge benefits for retired employees with 20 years
of service or more, are an important investment in support staff long-term quality of life. Your
retirement income will include the Public Service Pension Plan benefit (PSPP) built over your working
career, together with CPP and your own savings such as RRSPs.
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Comparative Value
In late 2014, through the services of an external benefits consultant, the Support Staff Benefits
Committee compared the value of your benefit program to that of seven other public sector plans in
Alberta and the findings showed that the Support Staff Benefit Program compares very favorably with
the other organizations with many University benefits being ranked higher than all the other
comparators. We believe the SSBP continues to offer high value to support staff and is an attractive
component of working at the University of Alberta.
We encourage you to learn more about the Support Staff Benefit Program available to you and how
these benefits add to your total compensation. For more information on your benefits, please visit our
websites at: www.hrs.ualberta.ca/Benefits/Overview/Eligibility/Support.aspx or
www.nasa.ualberta.ca/collective-agreement
If you have any questions, please contact any of the members of the Support Staff Benefits Committee
listed below.
Support Staff Benefits Committee Members
Joy Correia, Martin Coutts, Nancy Furlong, Elizabeth Johansson, Wayne Patterson, Brian
Pearson
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