Topline information:
The City of Calgary received a third-party report on total compensation for all employee groups Monday, and it showed the city is “competitive against comparative markets.”
It fell short of most private companies in terms of overall compensation.
What you need to know:
- It’s the first time the city’s done a total compensation analysis like this.
- The review showed that lower-level employees make more than peers in across the country, but senior level employees are making less than peers.
- There are areas where the city is ahead of most peers in Canada, and areas where they are behind or significantly behind.
- The review looked at all employees – union, sworn personnel (firefighters, police), exempt staff and senior managers.
- It covered cash pay, benefits, pensions and perks
- The city will come back with another admin report in June on how they will respond to the external report.
Quotables:
- “I was hoping we’d save a bunch of money with this review, but it sounds like we’ve actually been chipping away at this for a long time,” Mayor Nenshi said.
- On multiple pensions: “It is crucial that the focus be on the overall value of the plans in aggregate and not how many plans there are. In a way, focusing on the number of plans is no different than determining your wealth by the number of coins in your pocket.” – Warren Shepell partner in council on Monday.
Additional reading:
The full compensation report is available below.
