Mayor’s job in Toronto underpaid, report finds
Posted August 10, 2010 8:53 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – A consultant’s report suggested the next mayor of Toronto should receive a 9.4 per cent pay hike.
The position currently pays less than the mayors of other cities in the GTA, even though it is the largest jurisdiction.
The mayor currently earns $184,000 a year plus benefits, but the report recommended the next mayor should receive a $16,000 raise.
However, the candidates in the mayoral race said they would reject a raise if elected. In fact, all of them said they will freeze their salaries.
Rocco Rossi opened his campaign with a promise to cut his salary by 10 per cent.
He told 680News people should not compare the leader’s job with salaries in the private sector.
“Politics is a high calling, but it should be a time of service, it’s not a career, and the moment you start looking at it as a career, that’s when people start worrying about the salary, the pension and the benefits, as opposed to serving the people,” Rossi added.
George Smitherman said he’ll freeze the mayor’s current salary level for the next four years.
“You can always find ways to justify your salary up [… but] I think that the level of compensation […] is more than fair considering the necessity of public service being the primary motivation for this work,” Smitherman said.
Fellow candidates Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone and Sarah Thomson also said they will freeze salaries at City Hall.
