Young councillors paid less than minimum wage
Young people are under-represented in local government. Jo McKenzie-McLean talks to some of the country’s youngest councillors who say the problem is working long hours for low pay.
Twenty-four-year-old Rebecca Vergunst wants to be the best councillor she can be. To do so, she estimates her workload as a Carterton District councillor puts her on minimum wage.
The mother-of-two, who earns $18,707 a year for her council work, is one of the youngest councillors in the country.
Only 6 per cent of elected members sitting around a council or community board table are under the age of 40, Local Government NZ figures show and so the Young Elected Members Network (YEM) is calling for urgent changes to tackle what they say is a ‘‘serious problem’’.
Hurunui District councillor Julia McLean, who campaigned for childcare support when she was elected in 2016, said schemes such as launching #stand2019 and a map showing where young elected members were located were designed to attract other young people into local government.
‘‘My stand was a trigger for a conversation that has evolved into thinking we want more young elected members to stand. Collectively we are voicing them now as opposed to one person standing by themselves.’’
YEM met for its first hui in Selwyn in 2017 and sent a submission in December 2017 as part of a Remuneration Authority review. The results of that review will be actioned this year, with the specific changes to be announced within the next few months.
‘‘Riddled throughout the review was acknowledgement there is a barrier with the remuneration model and they want to consult with childcare as a separate issue. We are still waiting for that to happen . . . There is rhetoric, which is fantastic . . . but we have not seen action.’’
McLean had found herself struggling to pay for childcare on her councillor salary ($20,634) and opted instead to bring her child to meetings.
The current approach has ‘‘severe limitations’’, according to the Remuneration Authority review. It allocates a base pay for a councillor for each council related to population and operational expenditure.
Each council then has the opportunity to utilise a pool (twice the ‘‘base pay’’ of one of their councillors) for positions of additional responsibility. Under this approach, councils are not allowed to distribute all of the additional amount evenly among all councillors.
The authority plans to change this model so councils will know ahead of this year’s local
government elections how much they will have at their disposal and has introduced a ‘‘governance pool’’ aligned with a council’s size index ranking.
The authority’s review says it does not accept all councillors throughout the country should be on the same remuneration, but does accept there should be a base amount. Under the new model, each council could allocate its own pool according to its own priorities and circumstances, the review says.
McLean said YEM’s 80: 20 proposal – whereby all councillors received 80 per cent of the same base pay, with those on councils with a bigger pool of constituents receiving a 20 per cent top up – had fallen on deaf ears.
‘‘If the sector is serious about getting more people to stand then there needs to be more thought about how to make it more attractive.’’
As a result of the review the authority plans to introduce changes to the way councillors’ pay is set following the 2019 local body elections. More detail on those changes will be released in the first quarter of this year.
Vergunst, who was 22 when she was elected onto council, said the biggest challenges and barriers to attracting younger members, were pay and childcare assistance but it was important to represent young people.
‘‘Everyone is over 50 in my council. It’s not a bad thing, but you want someone who represents yourself and in your stage of life. I think it’s actually a serious problem. People don’t realise how important local government is and the sorts of changes we can make. Districts can be transformed.’’
The remuneration was set up for ‘‘retired people who could afford to be on council’’.
‘‘It probably works out at minimum wage. At the moment you get allowances for all sorts of things, but not extra childcare if you have to go to meetings.’’
Vergunst said on average she worked at least 15 hours a week for the council but that could easily increase when the annual plan was being worked on.
There was also a lot of unseen work, such as research – necessary to help her make informed decisions – and attending a range of council and community events to stay in touch with constituents.
The Remuneration Authority did not recognise smaller councils did the same regulatory work as bigger councils, she said. ‘‘We just have a lot less resources. If anything we are more engaged with our communities.’’
YEM’s submission, signed by 40 members and written by McLean, argued a base rate should be paid to all councillors that is competitive with the private sector. ‘‘Most people establish the platform for their careers between the ages of 18 and 40. Long hours, low pay and little control over days/hours are commonplace at the beginning of a person’s career,’’ McLean said.
‘‘All of these factors make it extremely difficult, if not completely impractical, to be a young person on a council, community board or local board.
‘‘Our experience is that most councillors (and many community board and local board members) spend at least 20 hours a week performing council duties or interacting with the community.
‘‘The reality for many (especially young people) is that being a councillor or community or local board member precludes them from holding down another job, as meetings are at inconsistent times and days of the week and may involve travel and work at night.’’
Selwyn District mayor Sam Broughton, 37, said he was able to be a councillor due to his ‘‘understanding wife’’.
The pair juggled four part-time jobs between them before he decided to stand for mayor, and serving as a councillor came at a large personal cost in terms of career advancement and take home pay ($36,115), he said.
‘‘We all have to consult with our communities, we all have to take phone calls late at night, we all have to turn up to community meetings in our weekends, we are all public property and lose our privacy within our community regardless of size.’’
Hastings Rural Community Board member and Community Boards Executive Committee chairman Mick Lester, 73, said younger members were recruited into the executive committee before the last election and the difference around the table was ‘‘mind-blowing’’.
‘‘The ability and originality of young people blows me away . . . They just have got ideas and thoughts which are pertinent to the 21st century.’’
Many councils were consolidating meetings to make the job easier, and some councils, like Hastings, had launched a youth council to help introduce young people to local government.
But, Lester said, ‘‘Council work is low paid, the work load is incredibly heavy and it’s very hard to hold down a fulltime job and be a councillor.’’
Porirua City councillor John Burke, who was first elected as a councillor in 1971 and is a former mayor, said remuneration had improved since the $5 he originally received and his council work also affected his ability to get promotion.
‘‘It is a bit tough but you do have to make sacrifices for the honour of serving your community. If you’re going to make a career out of it there will be sacrifices along the way.’’