As COVID has hammered the Ontario economy, the construction industry has escaped relatively unscathed.

But while construction sites have been a hive of activity almost throughout the pandemic, workers haven’t seen their fair share of the industry’s upside, according to a new union-sponsored report from the Centre for Future Work.

“Construction was one of three industries that kept going all throughout COVID. They’ve kept the Ontario economy going through the pandemic. These workers deserve their fair share,” said economist Jim Stanford, author of the report “Building Ontario’s post-COVID economy,” which was prepared for a group of skilled trades unions.

The construction industry was one of just a handful of industries in Ontario that grew in 2020, up 0.3 per cent to $50.9 billion, according to Statistics Canada. The number of new housing starts rose by 18 per cent in 2020, hitting a record 80,000 new starts, and is on course for an even higher number in 2021, Stanford said.

The industry was already benefiting from increased productivity over the last five years, said Stanford. But wage growth hasn’t kept up, he added.

“Workers are generating more revenue for their employers but they’re not getting their fair share of the value they’re creating,” said Stanford. Over the last five years, “real productivity” in the construction industry has grown by a total of 14 per cent. “Real wages” — with inflation stripped out — have grown by just 1.1 per cent over the same time period, Stanford said.

While wages in the construction industry have kept up with inflation — barely — they’ve done worse than overall wage growth in the country, Stanford said. He pointed to Statistics Canada data showing that overall wages in the country have grown by roughly three per cent per year over the past five years, while those in the construction industry have grown by 1.9 per cent.

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