[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

No one that serves in an American Presidential Administration considers salary in the slightest when taking that job.

The exposure is worth more than most dollar figures could ever meet.

Comparing the two hurts any argument you're trying to make. What does BC or Ontario pay comparable staff members?

They justify it by asserting, talented people won’t do these jobs unless the compensation is sufficient to attract them.

Former prime minister Jean Chretien, who engineered a significant boost to politicians’ pay back in the nineties, argued robust pay packets for MPs are fully justified.

Base pay for federal MPs got boosted again two months ago, to $160,200.

And politicians have a penchant for manoeuvering pay hikes just before legislative breaks. In this latest case, Clark’s outgoing cabinet quietly made the arrangement on June 3.

The assumption doubtless is that voters forget by the time the next election rolls around.

The B.C. premier is paid $193,500 a year, consisting of an MLA’s base pay of $101,859 with the balance paid for being premier.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper earns $320,000 annually.

Meanwhile, mean family income in Canada is $69,860.

In B.C., it’s lower: $66,970 — only marginally higher than incomes in Manitoba. (BC Stats puts average incomes for hourly employees at $45,604.)

Yet, Manitoba’s premier receives just $164,500 a year, MLAs, $89,500.

Whether you think politicians are too highly paid or not paid enough, they surely ought to earn more than their political staffers.

In B.C.’s case, according to these latest pay hikes, Clark’s deputy chief of staff Michele Cadario will earn more than her boss — $195,148.

Chiefs of staff to B.C. ministers will now be able to earn $102,000 — slightly more than an MLA.

But the best basis of comparison for political staffers is what their counterparts elsewhere are earning.

In Ontario, with a population three times that of B.C., a deputy chief of staff to the premier earns $161,054, a chief of staff, $263,948.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business...984/story.html