Pay rise for Napier city councillors

A Napier councillor has voted against adopting higher pay because the council does not pay staff the living wage.

Councillor Maxine Boag told yesterday’s Napier City Council meeting she would be voting against the higher remuneration levels on principle, despite thinking councillors do not earn ‘‘enough to survive’’ if council remuneration was their only income.

‘‘I’m against this increase as I’m not happy with taking a sizeable salary hike when we haven’t shown any support for paying our employers the living wage.’’

Napier was the only council in Hawke’s Bay, which had ‘‘not even considered’’ paying the living wage to its employees.

Councillor Graeme Taylor and mayor Bill Dalton then interrupted, with Dalton warning it was ‘‘not a time to launch a cam- paign for the living wage’’.

Boag said the council was proud of ‘‘how financially flush we are’’, yet even the ‘‘less affluent’’ neighbouring Wairoa District Council had already enacted a policy to pay staff above the minimum rate.

‘‘I’m not prepared to vote in favour of our salary increase while this remains unresolved; however, I’m very hopeful that in the foreseeable future we’ll be able to join the other councils in our region in making some public commitment in paying the living wage.’’

Dalton thanked the Remuneration Authority. His pay rose from the 2017/18 level of $130,556 per year, to $131,514, which included a vehicle and mileage costs.

‘‘I’ll spend the next few months trying to work out what to do with all that extra money.’’

The deputy mayor’s pay increased from $48,104 to $51,085 per year, and councillors from $39,938 to $42,413.

The Remuneration Authority sets pay for all elected members.

All council members voted to adopt the new levels, except Boag.