The headline reads, "Council Approves Gross Wage Increase." Moose Jaw City Council voting in favour this week to give themselves a raise. While their gross pay will go up, their net pay will remain about the same because of a federal tax adjustment.
Most of the locals commenting on this DiscoverMooseJaw.com story are not in favour of this. Sandi says "I would also like a wage increase to bolster what I lose via taxes...pay them less and less tax comes off."
Elaine says, "Yep...it's gross alright."
But, a man named Keith says, "I don't have a problem...Our elected officials were underpaid relative to other cities in the province to begin with..."
Keith's right. In fact, when the mayor's annual salary goes from just over $68,000 to $79,000 it'll still be well below the $88,000 the mayor of Prince Albert earns. Yorkton's mayor makes about $81,000 and in Swift Current the pay is $78,000 and those are apparently part-time positions.
I've said it before; if we want to attract quality people to City Council we have to pay them a reasonable salary.