The maximum pay band for Calgary’s Chief Operating Officer jumped by 29 per cent for 2026, separating the position from the City of Calgary’s general managers.

Further, in an analysis of public compensation disclosures, director-level pay bands were uniformly boosted from a maximum pay of either $218,500 or $262,500 to a 2026 maximum band of $290,700 for all director positions.

The biggest overall pay increase came for the City of Calgary’s Preventative Maintenance Leads, whose maximum pay band increased from $128,548 to $189,822.

The City of Calgary publishes an annual compensation list of the more than 2,000 positions under its employ but doesn’t include exact current salaries, nor the exact number of employees in those roles. The most current list was published earlier this spring. On the City of Calgary’s website, it indicates they currently have 16,846 employees.

Upon questions from LWC, the City of Calgary said that they use salary ranges to “support fair, consistent, and market-informed pay for employees.”

“Each range is defined by factors including the scope of the role, level of responsibility, required education, experience, and how the job compares with similar roles inside The City and in the external labour market.”

They said their compensation philosophy settles in the middle of the market for comparable jobs to stay competitive but also be responsible with public dollars, they said.

“The City recently updated its exempt compensation program, including its job evaluation system and salary structure. The previous system had been in place for over 20 years,” read an emailed response to questions.

“As part of the update, exempt jobs were reassessed and placed into the new salary structure using job evaluation results and relevant market information. Some jobs moved to salary ranges with higher maximums, while others moved to lower ranges.”

They did say that the COO role was set as distinct from the General Manager range “to reflect its scope.” With regard to the directors’ roles, the city said that two separate salary ranges were combined into one.

When comparing the 2025 and 2026 lists, there were 493 new positions and 352 removed positions.

Even more city employee transparency needed: Coun. Johnston

Public salaries have come under some scrutiny in recent months, with both Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas and Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston pushing for additional light to be shone on the so-called sunshine lists.

Coun. Johnston has said that pushing for greater transparency isn’t about “attacking or undermining our dedicated city workers.”

In speaking with LWC on the most recent disclosure, Johnston said he doesn’t like the pay band model the city uses.

“If you’re a taxpayer, you just assume every single pay band is at the max,” he said.  

“That’s your job as a citizen, to scrutinize how taxes are spent. You assume the worst and wait for the facts that come out to prove you wrong.”

The City of Calgary said if an employee’s salary already fell within the revised ranges, it didn’t change.

“Changes to a salary range maximum reflect updates to the range, not an equivalent increase to an employee’s pay,” they said.

Johnston said that the Government of Alberta’s proposed changes to the Public Sector Compensation Transparency Act, lowering the threshold for the disclosure of public sector compensation to $130,000 (in base salary) is actually lower than one he proposed earlier this year.

Still, Johnston wanted to see full disclosure of the pay of city employees.

“You give up your rights, certain rights, when you become a public sector employee,” he said.

“One of those is a salary, your name, and actually all compensation. So, whatever benefits you receive from the city are taxpayer money and should be able to be scrutinized.”

Mayor Farkas believes that the pay band system works for the vast majority of city employees. He would like to see more disclosure around the executive leadership at the City of Calgary.

“I think it’s fully fair to disclose sort of those very top-ranking officials, but don’t make it about a public sector salary witch hunt,” he said.

“Make it about the objectivity of how high-performing companies operate.”

A motion to disclose compensation like the top 10 publicly traded companies in Calgary didn’t move forward, and Mayor Farkas said that the province’s upcoming changes to employee disclosure will serve a similar purpose.

Beginning in 2027, the Government of Alberta, through Bill 28 approved in May 2026, will require municipalities to publish the names, positions, annual compensation, total value of non-monetary benefits received, and any severance, who are above the $130,000 threshold.

Farkas said he’s happy to talk about value for money; he thinks the City of Calgary is getting a lot out of employees.

“Let’s make this about the facts. Let’s make this about respect,” he said.

“Every single one of the (16,846) city hall employees I get to work with works their butts off every single day for Calgarians, and many of them actually would be paid more for their roles in the private sector.”