Nearly half a million B.C. public school students missed their first week of classes due to the labour dispute between teachers and the provincial government.

Since job action escalated in the spring, both the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and the government have argued by tossing numbers into the public debate while providing little context.

While provinces keep their numbers differently, making comparisons difficult, a look at Alberta and Ontario – provinces that also have dicey relationships with their educators – sheds some light on teachers' compensation and working conditions elsewhere in Canada.

For example: While new teachers in B.C. make salaries that are comparable to their counterparts in other provinces, those with more experience or expertise lag behind. In Alberta and Ontario, top-ranked teachers can earn up to $20,000 more a year.

And while the BCTF and government argue about appropriate class sizes, Alberta favours loose provincial guidelines over legislated caps, resulting in class sizes ranging from a handful to nearly 50 students.

Nina Bascia, an associate chair at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, believes the real issue behind the B.C. conflict is less about the numbers and more about the initial move by the B.C. Liberals to strip the teachers of certain collective bargaining rights in 2002 without consultation.

"The position that the BCTF wants to go back to early-2000s isn't about the numbers," Ms. Bascia said. "It is about the principle."