City of Lethbridge to make staff salaries & benefits public

Sep 16, 2019 | 4:33 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge City Council has voted unanimously to create a Compensation Disclosure List and to make it publicly accessible.

The motion was introduced by Councillor Jeffrey Coffman and would include “position titles, salary ranges and information about pensions and benefits for all employment positions and elected officials at the City of Lethbridge.”

Lethbridge News Now reporter Lara Fominoff had been requesting information on this for a period of approximately a month before it was introduced to council.

Councillors Coffman and Rob Miyashiro, as well as City Manager Bramwell Strain, were among those at Monday’s council meeting that mentioned a “local media publication” that was released last week when talking about this motion.

Coffman said this is a big step in having Lethbridge’s local government become more transparent and financially accountable.

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The City will not be identifying specific employees and salaries, but rather, mention that a person in this position would be in this salary range.

Councillor Belinda Crowson recounted that when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) publicly released the salaries of all of their employees, it resulted in some women and minorities learning that they were making less than those in similar positions who had similar levels of experience. In the end, those workers achieved equal pay for equal work.

While she is not sure if pay equity gaps exist in the City of Lethbridge, she hopes that they can get similar results if this turns out to be the case.

The City of Lethbridge will have until the next annual report comes out to compile all of this information.

You can learn more about city salaries and more through the following link: City of Lethbridge Salaries and More: Your Questions Answered

by David Opinko