Political Elite

Why would the Campbell government wait until it had settled with 300,000 public employees before announcing what it was giving to its politically appointed staff? The news release issued from the Office of the Premier on Friday, July 21st, said that political staff not affected by the changes in salary bands will continue to receive a 7.5% per year increase for the next three years. It is not clear why those staff have three year salary adjustments while the public service has four year agreements, nor is it clear whether those whose salary bands are being increased will also receive 7.5% per year on top of the "reclassifications". A message left on the Premier's Press Secretary's voice mail on that question has gone unanswered.

The Premier's Chief of Staff will receive an increase of 24.82 per cent, taking his salary to $185,390. The increase of $36,864 is more than the total after tax income of almost half of all British Columbians.

Ministerial Assistants received increases of 13.02 -19.91 per cent, and "a few exceptional employees" received 25.97 per cent, taking their pay to $89,775 for an increase of $18,508 per year. To put it in perspective, $18,508 (just the amount of the salary increase) is 1.35 times more than the annual allowance for a single parent who receives disability allowance, or almost 7 times as much as the annual provincial income taxes paid by a single parent earning $50,000 per year. Think of it as seven single parents with good jobs working to pay just the increase of an "exceptional" ministerial assistant, or fourteen single parents working to pay just the increase for the Premier's Chief of Staff. Of course, the median after tax income for single parents is $21,300, not $50,000, so it would take more than 60 such median income single parents to pay for the increase of the Chief of Staff.

The political elite in Victoria, especially the Campbell cabinet, don't seem to understand that many British Columbians aren't sharing in the province's prosperity, but share or not, they must pay to make sure the elite get more than their share.

Postscript: Sean Holman reported in his Public Eye Online website that the Legislative Assembly Management Committee approved an increase of $40,000 per MLA ($35,000 for constituency expenses and $5,000 for offices in Victoria). It looks like that may have contributed to the silence of the Opposition on the political pay raises. The political elite, and their attitudes, are not limited to the governing party.