Mayor Nenshi surprised by municipal worker compensation report
Posted Jan 18, 2021 2:55 pm.
Last Updated Jan 18, 2021 2:56 pm.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Calgary City Council is mulling over an expansive report on total compensation for municipal workers.
It’s the first time everything from salaries to pensions has been looked at in-depth.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he didn’t expect some of the findings.
“I was surprised at how our total compensation falls short across the country. I knew it fell short in Calgary, because wages in Calgary for every job are much higher than in other parts of the country, but I was surprised how much we fell short across the country,” he said.
“I was hoping we would save a bunch of money with this review but, it sounds like we’ve actually been chipping away at this for a long time.”
The mayor says this busts some of the myths that city workers are making way more than they would in the private sector.
The report did uncover some inequities.
“I will say one thing we have already addressed, even in our tough budget we put some money aside to address, was areas where managers were making less than their staff, because we had frozen management salaries for so long, that they’ve gone a bit out of synch.”
Nenshi adds the report does give the city key insights when it comes time to negotiate with non-union staff.
