St. Catharines Council turns thumbs-down on potential pay hike

St. Catharines Councillors had a chance to gradually bump their paycheques but turned it down at last night’s (May 16) meeting.

The Finance Department pulled together an extensive report, including such extras as increased benefits and free transportation on city buses, but with the negative vote, all incentives were tossed off.

When the report was trying to accomplish was an increase balanced against the average pay of St. Catharines residents, which they had set at $45,709 annually.

Their gradient plan would move toward that marker with a four per cent increase annually against their present annual salary of $25,368, pushing it to $27,197 in 2023 right up to $32,684 by 2026.

That would mean councillors would be making 71 per cent of the average residents’ salary and would put them in line with councillors salaries in similar-sized smaller cities.

The fly in the ointment is that being a city councillor is expected to be a part-time job. Many at the table have full-time jobs already. However, it might be one of the few part-time jobs with full-time hours as constituents are known to call around the clock.