Not many businesses let their employees pick how much they’ll be paid, but an independent committee says that that’s what Calgary City Council should do on Monday.
The mayor and council will have the weekend to think about the idea of a pay raise or even a pay cut ahead of a formal vote during Monday’s council meeting.
The committee also suggested how much the members should be paid, over $113,000 for councillors and $201,000 for Mayor Nenshi after a six percent pay cut.
The salaries are tied to inflation and the average income of Albertans each year.
While the committee recommends that a vote in council is the best way to go ahead with a raise, almost all of the councillors that CTV Calgary spoke to said that that’s a bad idea.
However, Mayor Nenshi said that politicians are more likely to reject raises because of the optics, something he says isn’t fair.
“A lot of members of the public will say ‘if politicians are voting on their own salaries, they’re just going to ratchet up their salaries’. What is much more likely is the opposite.”
As for what the public thinks, most of the people CTV Calgary spoke with said that it’s best to get paid for what you’re worth on the market, but voting on your own raise is not a good idea.
Others say the public should be the ones to make the decision on what those wages should be.
Council will debate the recommendations on Monday, but any changes won’t come into effect until the fall.
