Women scarce among W. Kelowna’s top earners
It’s a man’s man’s man’s world among the top earners at the City of West Kelowna.
Ninety-eight city employees make more than $75,000 a year, newly-released city documents reveal.
Only 11 of them are women.
The striking gender imbalance was pointed out at Tuesday’s meeting by Coun. Carol Zanon, the only woman among the seven-member council.
“I don’t want to editorialize on it, but there are 98 names listed here earning over $75,000. There are 14 are women, the rest are men. “And three of those women are gone (have left the city’s employment),” Zanon said.
“Just an observation,” Zanon said. “So, we’re good, but we’re not perfect.”
None of the other city councillors commented on Zanon’s observation, and Mayor Gord Milsom called for a vote to accept the salary information as an information item.
By law, every B.C. municipality must release the names and salaries municipal employees who made more than $75,000 in the previous year. The information is normally made public by the end of July, but the provincial government allowed a delay in its release this year owing to the pandemic.
The $75,000 threshold for public disclosure has been in place since 2002. Prior to that, the threshold was $50,000.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Coun. Doug Findlater asked finance director Warren Everton if he was aware of any move toward increasing the threshold from $75,000.
“I actually think it would be more meaningful if it was raised to $100,000, or something like that,” Findlater said.
Everton said he believed many B.C. municipalities would like the government to increase the threshold, the result of which would be that far fewer names would appear on the annual list.
The average British Columbian who worked full-time in 2019 earned $60,115 a year, according to the provincial government website.