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.
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This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 1, 2017.
Shameful. These clowns just got elected and they already got raises. HRM keeps wasting our tax dollars and this is featherbedding of the worst kind. Freeze council salaries during each term and only make adjustments when a new council is elected.
“A little more than a living wage”
“Modest”
Yeah ok. I wish my salary was a little more modest then. Oh wait, I’m a disposable-part-time-contractor so I don’t have a salary. Never mind.
0% for me again this year. Happy to have the work though.
Government and union wages continue to be a major source of inflation.
No raise for me over the past 7-8 years but my taxes are higher and eggs, milk, and bread cost more.
Fuck you, councilors, you “living wage” fucks.
I’m sure we’re getting our moneys worth out of this, right?
Wow, retro to November. Nice bonus. Dicks.
It’s one thing to give yourself a 4% raise. It’s quite another to insist other workers get 1% or 0%. Workers who make half your wage to begin with.
And to the comment on unionized workers wages? If unions weren’t fighting for and winning real living wages for working people, the race to the bottom would be over. Union wages become the benchmark. Why on earth do you think the bosses hate workers having unions. Because they are greedy fucks.
and your comments against unions are ill informed, inaccurate and actually help the uneven distribution of wealth and keep shitty shitty paying jobs, shitty paying jobs.
@David Frevola. Thank you for admitting unions are greedy fucks.
What you don’t get is unions are a victim of their own success and are seen as part of the undeserving elite.
Yep, you have to have ’em. But once you have ’em, they can be just as abusive with that power as the next group…
At a minimum, elected officials should not be able to vote on pay raises that take effect during their current terms. And this ‘we based it on the averages that were driven up by our increases, so we had to increase our pay to meet the averages that were driven up by our increas…..”
Stupidity, and wholly undeserved.