City council gets 3.4 percent pay raise

It’s a little bit more than a living wage.

Salary numbers for Halifax Regional Council have finally been calculated and most of the municipality’s elected officials received a modest 3.4 percent pay raise this year.

Councillors will see their pay increase from $82,653 to $85,443. The deputy mayor’s salary has likewise increased from $90,918 to $93,988.

Mayor Mike Savage’s salary stays the same, at $176,033.

The numbers were released today by city hall and are retroactive to November 1. As previously reported, missing information from Brampton caused a nearly four-month delay in setting this year’s salaries.

Council’s pay is determined annually using a weighted average of comparable salaries in other Canadian cities, plus 50 percent of the difference between that average and the highest payment levels.


As the weighted average—plus that 50 percent adjustment—for the mayor’s salary came out several thousand dollars below what Savage is currently paid, it remains unaffected.

Two years ago, an independent salary committee advised council to change its salary formula and tie pay rates to the salaries of the average full-time income of HRM residents.

Although the idea was narrowly defeated, councillor Steve Craig made a motion last fall for HRM’s chief administrative officer to look into the issue again. A new report on the matter is expected back to council later this year.