OPSEU Arbitration Announced- The pay gap for dietitians is widening again — and it's not by accident

The pay gap for dietitians is widening again — and it's not by accident.

Registered Dietitians working in Ontario's hospitals are covered by union-negotiated wage structures like the one announced today, with increases moving through the 2025 to 2027 wage grid. That progress happened because those dietitians have a bargaining table. It's a step forward, and it's deserved.

But even within that structure, raises don't always land evenly or on schedule — it was over a year beyond the last agreement forced by arbitration.  And zoom out further: the vast majority of RDs — in primary care, community health, and private practice — have no equivalent mechanism at all. No central table. No arbitrated wage grid. No guaranteed keeping pace with inflation. Just whatever the market, the Ontario Health Ministry (or the absence of one) decides.

Ontario is pouring billions into primary care attachment and naming allied health professionals "at full scope of practice" as part of the plan. Dietitians are named in that vision. But recognition on paper doesn't pay rent, and it doesn't fix the fact that most RDs in this province have no formal wage structure at all — hospital-employed or not.

If hospital dietitians deserve a fair wage (they do), every dietitian does. Continue to share the Fair Pay for Registered Dietitians petition — because "essential" shouldn't depend on your postal code or your employer.

When the wages gap widens, the exit of more RDs will accelerate to hospitals instead of the community serving regular people.