Council mulls more transparent way to disclose public-servant pay

There's a move afoot at city hall to take some of the guesswork out of the way Winnipeg discloses public-servant salaries.

St. James-Brooklands Coun. Scott Gillinghamwants to improve the transparency ofthe city's annual compensation disclosure,a list of payouts to all employees who earn more than $50,000 a year in salaries and benefits.

Right now, the document displayscompensationas a single lump sum. That leads to questions as to why some city employees appear to make vastly more money than others in the same job classification.

• Deepak Joshi, former Winnipeg CAO, highest-paid city employee in 2015

Gillingham has authored a motion to have the compensation broken down into its constituent categories.

"For example, the public can get a better sense of what is base pay vs. what is additional pay, what is sick leave cash out, what is vacation pay, overtime, allowances, severance. Those things should all be spelled out if this motion goes through," he said Tuesday in an interview.

Last week, Mayor Brian Bowman expressed a similar sentiment after he was asked why former Winnipeg acting chief administrator Deepak Joshi earned $567,000 in 2015.

• Winnipeg mayor keeps mum on $567K payout to former acting CAO Deepak Joshi

Gillingham's motion will be presented to council on Wednesday. According to council rules, it will be referred automatically to executive policy committee in September.

The province may need to approve the changes, he said.