Mayor Gregor Robertson and his 10 city councillors will get a pay raise this month.
But how much of an increase is still being worked out.
That’s because data relied upon annually by city staff to determine the raise isn’t the same as previous years and has resulted in a delay in setting salaries for 2014.
The new methodology has Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie worried the data will only reflect high wage earners and translate to a higher than normal raise for council.
“I don’t believe that that’s appropriate — that’s a big concern for me and I don’t support that,” said Louie, who is the head of council’s finance committee.
Louie said an increase should reflect what the average full-time employee in Vancouver earns, which was $65,860 last year. An independent panel that reviewed council’s salaries set that formula in 1995.
Since the panel’s decision, an increase in salary for council has been automatic in January and adjusted annually to track changes in wages as reported by Statistics Canada.
This time around, however, the data was collected under the voluntary National Household Survey, which replaced the mandatory long-form census.
Louie, who argued in council chambers against the federal government’s move to the new survey, believes the new data won’t be as accurate or reflective of wage earners.
Response rates to the new survey, as he learned in reading an analysis by University of Toronto professors, have varied by location, socioeconomic status, cultural origin and family status.
The analysis by professors David Hulchanski, Robert Murdie, Alan Walks and Larry Bourne showed people with higher levels of education, higher-status jobs, higher incomes and older people had higher response rates.
“Single parents and one-person households as well as renters had lower response rates,” the professors wrote in a recent editorial in the Globe and Mail. “So did those living in the richest and poorest census tracts.”
Louie said other implications of a “skewed” average income could mean increased costs for childcare and affordable housing rental rates.
“It relates to many other income-tested services that are provided in our city,” he said.
Last year, councillors collected $65,860, a jump from $64,385 in 2012. The mayor earned $149,503 in 2012, an increase from $146,156 the previous year.
A councillor in Toronto earns $102,000 a year and an Edmonton councillor pulls in $87,995. Edmonton’s mayor earned $135,694 last year.
NPA Coun. George Affleck said he didn’t choose to run for council for the money. Affleck, who also runs a public relations firm, said he would settle with no increase.
“I’m not in it for the money,” Affleck said. “Zero, zero and zero would be fine for my three years in office.”
Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr, who estimated she works 70 to 80 hours per week, agreed with Affleck that she didn’t seek a council seat for the money.
“Certainly, the facts are we are underpaid for a city of our size,” Carr said. “But the good news is that we’re pegged to the average income of Vancouverites and I just think that’s so eminently fair. We’re supposed to be representing the people of Vancouver.”
But, Carr said, she would favour spending money on hiring more staff to assist councillors with the deluge of emails, letters and phone calls they receive.
“We have wonderful staff but we share them,” she said. “I literally can’t keep up.”
City staff is expected to finalize council’s salary increase before the end of the month. The mayor’s rate will be 2.27 times the rate of a councillor.
