Sunshine shaming?
The annual “Sunshine List” has emerged and once again, the number of people making in excess of $100,000 per year grew significantly.
As readers will recall, the purpose of the list was to shine a light on costs to employ civil servants, whether that be part of the bureaucracy, police or fire service. The motive for the legislation was to bring awareness to largesse, but the yardstick has never moved since 1996. That was a lifetime ago.
Back then, $20,000 would have been the price of a decent new vehicle and a cheap second car with plenty of miles left could be bought for $1,000 to $2,000. Pay of more than $100,000 was a big deal.
Today, a cheap car is almost impossible to find and new vehicles range from $30,000 to $90,000 for a higher-end vehicle. The world has changed, so why hasn’t the Sunshine List been updated?
Various sources suggest the threshold for inclusion on the list should now be $175,000 per year, which would demonstrably change the extent of the list. In the interest of space in covering this story, highlights were chosen by our reporter. It should be no surprise that chief administrative officers top the list of various municipalities and institutions in our coverage area. They are the day-to-day leaders of their organizations with vast responsibilities ranging from deployment of public health initiatives and overseeing dozens if not hundreds of staff. These are significant roles that will garner top compensation.
Infamous pay grids and the consultants that recommend pay structures, base salaries on market conditions. Councils adopt those reports and enable increases annually. Any misgivings with pay rates and exploding employee costs are, at the end of the day, a council choice. Within that choice there is surely a contemplation of attracting and retaining talent. From our experience across many sectors, not all CAOs or heads of organizations are created equal. If an organization has a good one, efforts need to be made to keep them on board.
Absent performance measurements found more so in the private sector, top-end pay is an indicator for what happens below on pay scales. It is unavoidable under the current compensation regimen and methods by which rates of pay are set. For those unsettled by rates of public pay, there are always job offerings to explore, and some sectors are desperate for help.
The threshold of $100,000 is still meaningful here. With an average household income for Wellington residents of $118,000 (in 2020, before tax), one can see a growing inequality amongst the masses. Civic leaders need to be cognizant of this point. Affordability issues caused by stagnant private-sector wages aren’t going away any time soon.