It should not take another bargaining round for Ontario’s home care nurses to remind the system of their worth. Yet here we are.
Hundreds of nurses working under the Victorian Order of Nurses are once again asking for something so obvious it should not even be up for debate: fair pay. These are the same professionals who hold the same licenses, carry the same education, and shoulder risks that hospital nurses often don’t face yet their wages fall as much as $20 an hour below their counterparts.
That gap is not only unfair, it is unsustainable.
Home care nurses aren’t simply providing check-ups in cozy living rooms. They are walking into unknown environments, often alone. They face unsafe homes, hostile patients, and, according to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board data, violent incidents five times more often than nurses in hospitals. They drive long distances between patients, stretch themselves thin across caseloads that are impossible to manage properly, and still show up because without them, countless patients would simply go without care.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the pay disparity was laid bare. Nurses fled home care for hospitals, chasing stability and better compensation. Who could blame them? The sad irony is that decades ago, home care actually paid better. That advantage eroded over time, and now, wages have not even kept pace with inflation. By one nurse’s calculation, pay should be at least 14 per cent higher today just to be fair.
This isn’t just about money. It’s about respect. Home care nurses are often the only lifeline for patients who cannot set foot in a hospital. When emergencies strike in a home, these nurses are the ones making life-or-death decisions, without a team to back them up. Their skill and courage deserve recognition, not second-class treatment.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association is right to draw a hard line: equal pay for equal work. Anything less not only disrespects the profession but also puts the entire home care system at risk.
Because when pay is unequal, when conditions are unsafe, and when nurses feel undervalued, they leave. And when they leave, patients are the ones who suffer most.
It’s time Ontario acknowledged what should be obvious: home care nurses deserve the same pay and respect as every other nurse.
