Union supports review of city council salaries— if municipal employees get same consideration

As councillors consider another review of their salaries, the proposal is drawing conditional support from the union representing more than 900 municipal inside workers.

President of CUPE Local 101 Steve Holland told CTV News, “If they’re looking at doing that for council, I really do feel that we should be doing it across-the-board.”

Holland’s comments come after Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis said he supports conducting another independent review of the salaries paid to members of city council.

“Does the City of London, at almost half a million people, deserve and need to have a full-time council with compensation that attracts good candidates?” Lewis said.

Holland believes the same can be said about his membership.

Unionized employees are serving the same fast-growing population as council, and he believes competitive financial compensation is needed to attract qualified candidates for job openings.

“If council is going to use those comparators, then they should be using those same comparators for all unionized positions and start to pay us a little bit closer, or in accordance, with everybody else,” Holland explained.

Many municipal employees have skill sets that are in demand in cities and towns across the region.

Particularly during the province-wide housing crisis, job vacancies in the Planning and Building Departments could impact London’s efforts to add 47,000 new homes by 2031.

“No disrespect to other municipalities, but they’re poaching a lot of our members because their wages are better, significantly better,” Holland asserted.

Next week, the Governance Working Group (GWG) will consider if a new full-time councillor compensation model needs to be developed for the next council term.

The working group will also consider establishing the scope of work for an independent Council Compensation Review Task Force (CCRTF).

The mayor’s salary grew to $157,662 in 2024.

Earlier this year, council boosted the salaries of the deputy mayor and budget chair positions by 12.5 per cent to $73,279.

Other councillors earn the median full time employment income in London as determined in the most recent census, $65,137.

Some of London’s 14 councillors have external jobs or run their own businesses in addition to their role on council.

“It’s a part-time job, but their wages are very similar to what some of my members are getting or more,” said Holland. “That’s a hard pill for my members to swallow.”

A final report from the most recent Council Compensation Review Task Force was presented to council in March of 2022.

It maintained that councillors should earn the median employment income in London, but added that annual increases be automatic based on updates provided by census data.

Council’s GWG will consider whether to recommend launching a new compensation review at a meeting on May 13.