How a Quiet Comparator Change Set the Stage for a 33% Council Pay Raise
- Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 - 9:43 am
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A proposal to raise Guelph city councillor pay by 33 per cent was rejected Tuesday night after scrutiny showed the increase relied on benchmarking part-time councillors against full-time and two-tier municipalities, despite the City’s own data placing the 55th-percentile benchmark for comparable part-time, single-tier councils at approximately $50,382 – meaning Guelph councillors are already paid above that level.
That higher benchmark only became possible after a September 2025 council decision expanded the list of comparator municipalities used for compensation reviews, a change that materially altered how councillor pay would later be evaluated and only became widely understood once the proposed raise was brought forward.
September Vote Reshaped How Councillor Pay Would Be Judged
In September 2025, the direction to update comparator municipalities was discussed in a closed meeting, with the final motion voted on in open session. Council approved a motion directing staff to update the list of comparator municipalities used for all future compensation reviews, explicitly including City Council remuneration. The motion was moved by Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller and seconded by Ward 2 Councillor Carly Klassen, passing 11–1, with Councillor Gibson voting against.
The motion also delegated authority to the City’s Executive Team to update comparator municipalities going forward, removing the requirement for future council approval of changes to the list.
The practical effect was significant. The updated framework included full-time councillors and two-tier municipalities, where councillors often receive additional regional pay and operate under materially different governance structures. That broader framework later formed the basis for a staff recommendation proposing a 33 per cent increase for councillors.
During Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, council voted down staff recommendations that would have increased councillor salaries from $52,857 to $70,218 next term and raised the mayor’s salary by roughly 10 per cent to $187,067.
The councillor increase failed 8-5, while the mayor’s increase was defeated 9-4. Council then supported motions limiting future pay increases to the same annual rate as non-union city staff, typically two to three per cent, effectively freezing compensation for the next term pending final approval later this month.
What The City’s Data Shows Under Comparable Analysis
City remuneration documents classify Guelph councillors as part-time in a single-tier municipality. When compensation is examined using only comparable part-time, single-tier councils, the same dataset used by staff places the 55th-percentile benchmark at approximately $50,382.
Guelph councillors were already earning $51,317 as of January 1, 2026.
That part-time comparison is acknowledged in the staff report but not adopted, with staff instead relying on a broader comparator framework. The proposed 33 per cent increase only emerges after applying the revised comparator list that includes full-time and two-tier municipalities.
During debate, Ward 2 resident and Ward 1 Councillor Erin Caton argued the councillor role should not be treated as part-time, citing committee work, meetings with staff, boards and commissions, community events, and additional daytime sessions.
However, the most recent formal workload study commissioned by the City – a Council Composition and Ward Boundary Review prepared by Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. – found that Guelph councillors self-reported spending an average of approximately 20 hours per week on council duties.
The City has not released a more recent workload study to support reclassifying the role as full-time, and councillors continue to be formally classified as part-time for compensation purposes. The same remuneration report used to justify the proposed increase explicitly acknowledges that when councillors are compared only to other part-time councils, no increase is supported.
Blanket Raise Does Not Address Workload Claims
Caton also argued that councillors who do more work are paid the same as those who do less.
The City’s compensation structure, however, does not differentiate pay by workload, hours, or performance, and the proposed increase did not include any mechanism to address those disparities. Instead, it relied on expanding the peer group used for comparison, raising the benchmark without changing the job classification itself.
Public delegations questioned both the scale and justification of the proposed increases, raising concerns about fairness and the optics of altering compensation benchmarks that apply directly to elected officials.
Following that scrutiny, council rejected the proposed raises and supported limiting future pay increases to cost-of-living adjustments only. A final vote on freezing council pay and restricting increases to inflation-level adjustments is scheduled for February 24.
- Councillors are classified as part-time and self-report working about 20 hours per week
- Guelph councillors already earn above the 55th percentile when compared to comparable part-time councils
- Council approved changes to the comparator framework months before any raise was proposed
- The expanded framework benchmarked councillors against full-time and two-tier roles
- That change produced the justification for a 33 per cent raise
- Council reversed course only after public scrutiny intensified
If the same data does not support a raise under comparable, part-time analysis, why was the comparator framework changed at all – and why did its impact only become clear once a large increase was proposed?
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Leslie
Any type of raises should be brought to the tax payers of the City whether by a poll or added to the election docket. No City should have the right to pick their own raise increase without the tax payers input. After all we pay their wages.