Crown executives’ wage hikes make 3.5% cut seem laughable

It’s been a great decade for Crown corporation executives and managers under the Saskatchewan Party government.

That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily been horrible for ordinary Crown workers.

But it’s been just a great decade for Crown executives hired by the Sask. Party, and 2017-18 was among the greatest years of them all.

I’m not trying to be an executive-suite party pooper, but one wonders: What the hell happened to that alleged 3.5-percent wage reduction?

The long-awaited 2017-18 Crown Investment Corporation of Saskatchewan (CIC) payee disclosure report was released this week, and significantly lesswell-paid news reporters did some fine work poring over the detailed salary numbers.

One of many such fine stories came from the Leader-post’s D.C. Fraser, and showed executive salary increases more than double the remuneration increases for ordinary Sasktel, Saskpower and Saskenergy employees since 2007 (76 per cent versus 35 per cent).

Those of you who have followed the release of the annual Crown payee reports will know the stories have often focused on the salary costs of the energy utility Crowns — especially Sask. Power, where the number of six-figure-earning employees increased to 1,882 from 1,797 in 2015-16, and from a meagre 256 when the Saskatchewan government first started releasing these numbers in 2004.

It’s noteworthy, however, that Saskpower’s overall payroll only increased 1.9 per cent in 2017-18 to $378 million. This is significant because it very much appears Saskpower — a Crown that has long been guilty of massive rate increases — may finally be making some headway on its operational costs, which are traditionally driven by large overtime payouts.

But what’s more telling is that senior managers at the electrical utility enjoyed a whopping 19.8-per cent increase in 2017-18 compared with the previous year. In a year supposedly all about executive suite austerity, this actually flies in the face of the long trend at Saskpower where senior executive pay has gone up by 62 per cent since 2007 while employee pay has increased slightly more, at 64 per cent.

Shouldn’t we be a tad miffed at a government that has let its executive suite salaries skyrocket while claiming that they were cutting them by 3.5 per cent?

I am sure you will remember that much-ballyhooed 3.5-percent wage rollback that was immediately applied to our politicians (although you might recall the MLAS’ rollback didn’t last long) and Crown executives as a show of leadership. Tasked with this was then deputy minister to the premier Alanna Koch. However, after her own unsuccessful run for leadership, Koch left government with a $346,000 severance.

Suffice to say, the great executive salary 3.5-per-cent rollback hasn’t been especially successful at coaxing public sector wage earners to take a pay cut.

Maybe that’s because neither Sask. Party politicians nor their Crown executives have exhibited much leadership. At Sasktel proper (not including subsidiaries Sasktel International, Directwest and Securtek), 680 of its 3,320 employees made at least $100,000 compared with 590 who made six figures in 2016-17. But while Sasktel’s overall $310 million compensation costs were only 2.9-per-cent more than a year earlier, its senior manager costs increased 14.8 per cent in 2017-18 when 3.5-per-cent rollbacks were to be in effect.

More telling, average employee wages at Sasktel have increased a paltry 11 per cent since 2007, while Crown telephone utility executive suite compensation has gone up 107 per cent.

At Saskenergy proper, where 304 employees made more than $100,000 in 2017-18 (only a slight increase from 290 six-figure wage earners in 2016-17), overall salary compensation costs only increased 1.3 per cent while senior management compensation actually decreased 20162017 by 2.8 per cent.

While Saskenergy senior executive pay has increased 56 per cent since 2007, employee compensation pay has only gone up 32 per cent.

You get the picture.

Maybe Crown employees have reason to be a little mad. Maybe we all do.