The pay band for Calgary’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) role jumped nearly 50 per cent on the minimum side, and by 36 per cent on the maximum, compared with 2024, according to the 2025 City of Calgary compensation disclosure.

That annual compensation disclosure was published near the end of June, with LWC’s first inquiries about the matter sent on June 23.

After nearly two weeks of inquiries and dozens of emails later for details on a publicly available disclosure, the City of Calgary finally confirmed the increase to the CAO pay band was approved by council on April 29, 2025.

The item was discussed behind closed doors during the CAO performance review, and no information was provided about the pay band increase during that meeting, as it was held confidential.

LWC had learned, though no one would publicly confirm it on the record, the pay band bump was due, in part, to similar salaries earned by the CAO and Calgary’s Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Meanwhile, the minimum pay for Calgary’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) rose 2.5 per cent from 2024 to 2025, going from 203,500 to 208,500. The maximum went from 343,000 to 351,500 (2.3 per cent).

For comparison, the published 2024 pay band for the CAO was between $265,000 and $350,000, and the COO was between $203,500 and $343,000.  The City of Calgary, in one of the many emails exchanged, said the CAO’s 2024 pay band was eventually increased at the July 30 Regular Meeting of Council from $380,000 – $410,000.

In 2025, the gap widened considerably, with the pay band for Calgary’s CAO jumping to between $391,666 and $475,000.

According to the City of Calgary’s financial statements, CAO David Duckworth, an employee of Calgary City Council and not directly employed by the City of Calgary, was paid $406,000 in salary for 2024, with total compensation, including benefits, reaching $460,000. According to 2023 financial statements, the CAO’s 2023 salary was $346,000, with benefits bringing it up to $399,000.

Most other senior leaders across the corporation saw an increase of roughly 2.5 per cent, according to the compensation disclosure list.

• Editor’s note: The published pay band in the 2024 compensation disclosure is much lower than the first increase approved in July 2024. The above graphs represent the publicly available pay band information disclosed through Calgary’s Open Data.

Desire to be transparent: City compensation webpage

According to the City of Calgary’s compensation disclosure FAQ online, municipalities aren’t required to disclose employee compensation information.

“The City wishes to be open and transparent on where tax dollars go,” the site reads.

“The City’s list discloses position titles, salary ranges, and pension and benefit information for union and exempt employees. The City’s list does not have a salary threshold.”

Employee names and exact salaries are not included in the compensation disclosures. The City of Calgary began publishing compensation disclosures in 2015.

As of April 30, 2025, roughly 33 per cent of City of Calgary employees make between $75K and $100K. A further 27 per cent make between $100K and $125K, while 15 per cent are in the $125K to $150K range. Roughly six per cent make above $150K.

Back in April, the city council discussion and eventual decision on the confidential item identified as the CAO pay band decision wasn’t unanimous, though it’s difficult to say what items they were voting on because the otherwise publicly available information wasn’t disclosed at that meeting.

The votes were 10-2 and 7-5, respectively, while another final vote on it was 12-0.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the decision to increase the CAO pay band so substantially was due to the completion of a modernization of the human resources department that began with the last city council.

“There was a third party commissioned to look at not only our practices in terms of benefits, but also to look at salary bands,” she said.

“That work was done for the executive leadership team and other positions within the city. However, it was not yet completed for the Chief Administrative Officer position.”

The mayor said the initial analysis of salary bands didn’t come to them until 2024, when the first pay band increase was approved.

“There is a lag time between when we asked for the work to be done to when the decision reached us,” Mayor Gondek said.

Whether the pay increase seemed substantial compared with other executive increases, the mayor said they rely on external experts to provide them guidance. Other executive positions had been reviewed more frequently, she said.

“I would say the city manager position at that time, which was not called a CAO, I don’t think that had been reviewed with the type of depth that was needed,” Mayor Gondek said.

“So, I really think this is a matter of council directing last term to get some good, solid results, solid research done, and then having to enact those decisions.”