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 With all the hullabaloo over Greenlink, fire truck number three and the Spitfire lease, it was easy to overlook a big buck item tucked away in the supplementary communications agenda of the May 5 Council meeting.
Item 18, entitled Salary Market Comparison -- Non-Union Employee Salary Schedule -- reported an in camera City Council decision to raise the salaries of some 400 middle management employees by an average of 4.6 percent. The increases, retroactive to January 1, 2007, cost the taxpayers $1,360,000 in 2007 and $1,393,129 in 2008.
Depending on their position on a 14-grid scale, non-union employees had their salaries boosted anywhere from 0.5 percent to 15.1 percent. Employees in the top level of grid 17, such as the manager of Huron Lodge, had their previous salary of $127,980 boosted by 10.3 percent. Those in grid 16, previously remunerated to $116,878, were hiked 15.1 percent, and those in grid 15 enjoyed a 12-percent boost on top of $106,738.
At the low end of the totem pole, those in grid 4 making $41,360, went up 1.9 percent, and those in grid 5, earning $45,430, jumped only 0.5 percent.
The raises were granted following a salary market study by a consultant of comparable municipalities. Using comparisons with 13 other burghs such as Kitchener, Kingston, London and Hamilton, consultants Gazda, Houlne & Associates found that Windsor's salaries were generally close to our comparative target for the managers, supervisors and technical and administrative support positions, but much less competitive at the director and deputy director levels, such as deputy fire chief, chief financial officer and executive director of recreation.
The Council majority bought the argument that Windsor needs to remain competitive with other municipalities and sectors, such as hospitals and school boards, in order to attract and retain top executive talent. The recommendation was accepted to provide a target pay to the 65th percentile of the market as determined by the consultant.
Windsor was previously at the 50th percentile following a lengthy job evaluation exercise completed in late 2005 by the Hay Group consultants.
Council had the option last week in camera of soaring to the 75th percentile to stay in the same league as London, Mississauga and Ottawa, but the majority chose the more moderate 65th percentile. This view was no doubt influenced by the case against market competitive compensation in Windsor, starting with the lousy economy and the inability of the corporation to afford such increases given a declining tax base.
Other factors included job turnovers in the non-union ranks being not especially high (4.3 percent in Windsor compared to 8 percent across Ontario), and the cost-of-living in Windsor, especially housing costs, being lower compared to fast-growing municipalities.
It was also mentioned that the Windsor workforce has a Cadillac retirement benefit package, although new non-union employees no longer get the premium following a Council decision last year.
It should be noted that the market comparator increases are over and above the three-percent hikes the non-union staff received in 2007 and 2008, matching the negotiated terms of the city's CUPE union positions in those years.
I voted in the minority against the sudden and retroactive thrust to the 65th percentile although I fully recognize the value of many of the city's non-union, as well as union employees. I also recognize that the city is having difficulty recruiting and retraining good talent in market sensitive positions such as audit, engineering, planning and fire chief.
It would be much less expensive to simply raise the remuneration for those sensitive positions, but the Pay Equity Act will not allow such cherry picking. To that end, I would have preferred a more gradual escalation across the board.
What's done is done, but I can't help but wonder how long the public sector workers will be able to insulate themselves from what is going on in the private sector all around them. It is the shrivelling private sector, after all, that pays the taxes to support the ever-upward salaries of our government workers. | 
