Ontario home care nurses demand same pay, benefits as hospital nurses

A nurse tends to a patient in the intensive care unit at the Bluewater Health Hospital in Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Hundreds of home care nurses say they want to be paid the same as their counterparts in hospitals, as bargaining on a new deal gets underway.

The Ontario Nurses’ Association says it is asking the Victorian Order of Nurses for fair pay for home care nurses, who have to deal with a wide variety of issues other nurses do not.

They say data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board shows nurses have experienced 2,100 violent workplace incidents in homes over the last two years.

The union’s provincial president Erin Ariss says the rate of workplace violence is five times higher for those working in home care than for their counterparts in other nursing sectors.

She cites other risks nurses face on the job, such as visiting homes alone, driving lengthy distances between patients and caring for far too many patients to properly visit and treat all of them each day.

The Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Home care nurses with the organization can make upwards of $20 less per hour than hospital nurses, Arris said.

The pay disparity became readily apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when nurses left home care in droves for better pay in hospitals.

Lorna Thompson left the hospital sector to work as a nurse in home care some three decades ago, back when pay in home care surpassed hospital work.

Those wages slid over time, she said, and salaries have not kept up with the rate of inflation over the last decade. Pay would be 14 per cent higher if it had, she said.

Thompson said nurses who work in home care have the same education and licensing requirements as hospital nurses, and are often the only people who can help if an emergency occurs in the home.

“We deserve the equal pay,” she said.

“We’re demanding it and we’re not going to settle, not this time.”

The ONA represents about 230 nurses with the Victorian Order of Nurses who work in home care across the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2025.