Wage freeze for Markham's highest paid staff? Resident wants action
Top salary earner CAO Andy Taylor: 'It's a great sound bite, but it doesn't make a lot of economic sense'

Yorkregion.com
Tim Kelly
Nov. 21, 2017

Should Markham institute a pay freeze on its highest earners in order to make up for provincial legislation that boosts the minimum wage by $2.40 on Jan. 1?

That idea was floated by one citizen and entertained by a councillor at a budget meeting last week.

Bill 148, which will boost the minimum wage from $11.60 to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018, will cost Markham about $2.5 million in 2018 according to budget figures.

Earnest Light, a Markham resident who attended last Thursday's budget presentation, suggested the 289 city employees who made at least $100,000 in 2016, according to provincial salary disclosure figures, agree to a wage freeze in 2018 in order to save at least $3 million in taxpayer dollars.

By doing so, he said it would save the required tax-increase and user-fee hike required to make up for the Bill 148 mandated hike. Light calculated the city could save $3.3 million if a freeze was instituted. While there would be problems with such an idea the city has union-negotiated deals with groups such as its firefighters that would have to be renegotiated, Coun. Don Hamilton figured Light had a point, at least with non-union city staff.

"Instead of a per cent increase, we should have a dollar amount increase," said Hamilton.

Chief administrative officer Andy Taylor, the highest earner among city staff at $261,769.04 plus $28,369.01 in taxable benefits, said it's all relative. Taylor made the point contracts are subject to arbitration and collective bargaining.

But he also discussed taxes and how those on the lower end of the wage scale pay less compared to those on the higher end.

"If we gave $500 (in a wage increase) to everyone, that would be great if everybody's tax rate was the same. Five hundred dollars to one person is worth a lot more than $500 to another person. That's why, through the years, collective agreements are done through percentages. We have a regressive income tax system.

"It's a great sound bite," he said. "But it doesn't make a lot of economic sense."