DOS Staff Remuneration Increases by $497, 017

By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: April 25, 2014

Remuneration at the district of Squamish has increased by nearly half a million dollar in the last one year, an analysis of the Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) reveals.

In 2012, the district paid $10,147, 391 in staff salaries—with 31 employees making over $75,000. In 2011, the district paid $9,650,374 in salaries to its employees.

It’s a difference of $497,017.  

Sandra Koening, a district spokesperson, said the increase can be attributed to both an increase in Full Time Equivalent (FTEs) and increase in salaries and wages. The numbers also include overtime hours.

The term Full Time Equivalent (FTE) equates to all full-time, part-time, seasonal, casual, and overtime hours as if they were combined together to represent full-time staff.

For example, two staff working 20 hours each per week would be equal to one FTE.

Koening stressed that information in SOFI does not represent ‘salary’ but an overall compensation, which also includes overtime, vacation pay and retroactive adjustments.

The last time the overall compensation increased by almost half a million was in 2009, when municipal workers were paid almost half a million dollars more compared to 2008.

After 2009, overall compensation seems to have increased in smaller chunks. Between 2009 and 2010, the compensation differential was only $728,517.

Between 2010 and 2011, a time of core service reviews, the overall compensation actually dropped by $10,000.

Coun. Patricia Heintzman said when you look at the wages spread over the entire staff, the increase is ‘actually not that much’.

She said collective bargaining add about 3 to 4 per cent increase every year, while benefits also go up as a factor. The exempt staff salaries are also adjusted for the cost of living increase, an increase of 1.6 per cent this year.

Coun. Heintzman also said it may not be best to compare municipalities as some municipalities contract out a lot of consultants while others will hire more staff.

Couns. Bryan Raiser and Doug Race didn’t return emails for comment.

If Squamish added close to half a million to compensation, the Resort Municipality of Whistler managed to trim nearly $1.2 million in staffing costs last year.

RMOW realigned the corporate structure and eliminated two departments that saw savings, Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden told the Question paper.

Contractual obligation and inflation all added to the salaries, but a recent document put out by the district suggests that public perception may be skewed when it comes to staff salaries.

According to this district document, population has increased by 16.22 per cent, while the staff has only increased by 5.84 per cent. As of now, there are 179.4 FTEs positions in Squamish.