Cost of Living applied to some municipal salaries

July 3, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Salaries for new municipal workers have been adjusted according to cost of living, following a Council decision last week.

Previously, staff at Town Hall were allocated start pay according to 24 different salary grades, but these have been condensed to 16 different grades, with some employees going up and some going down.

Under the new plan, Aurora’s Chief Administrative Officer will have a start pay of $161,577, salary which is increased to $168,920 after one year, $176,265 after two years, culminating after five years at $198,298.

Municipal directors, such as the Director of Parks and Recreation will have a start salary of $133,184, progressing after five steps to $163,452.
Start salaries for the Director of Customer and Legislative Services will start lower at $113,144 before coming to $138,859 after five years.

The new numbers do not reflect what current holders of these jobs earned last year, according to numbers released earlier this year by the Province of Ontario through the Sunshine List, a roster of public sector employees who regularly earn over $100,000 annually.

For 2012, CAO Neil Garbe reportedly earned $191,017. John Leach, Director of Customer and Legislative Services, was clocked at $162,074, while Al Downey, Director of Parks and Recreation earned $149,526.

“The salary grades do not only apply to new hires,” said Dan Lavesque, Manager of Human Resources for the Town of Aurora. “All current staff will be moved to the appropriate step in the revised salary structure.

“Starting salaries are comparable to the old schedule for directors. No current staff salaries have been reduced. Some starting salaries have gone up, while others have gone down. The system of job evaluation was old and outdated. It had not been reviewed since 1989 when it was developed. Unionized positions were re-evaluated during the 2010 collective agreement negotiations and a commitment was made to address the non-union group.”

Under the new schedule, the salary some staff can aspire to over the years has been capped.

In 2012, the starting salary for the CAO was $147,147 with the top step capped at $173,901. The Director of Infrastructure, Town Solicitor and Treasurer stood at $136,955 capping at $161,834, while the directors of Parks, Bylaw, and Planning starting at $127,436, capping out at $150,587.