Last Friday the government put out a press release announcing that the pay rate for B.C.’s top public servants had been increased. They didn’t really put it out, rather they sneaked it onto their website with no fanfare, unlike the dozens of other ones we received last week, many extolling the great things that the government is doing, like sending the premier to Beijing and telling people how to avoid trouble with bears. In part that press release said:

“Like most employers in Canada, the BC Public Service faces significant challenges due to an aging workforce. The challenge is greatest at the executive level. Forecasts show that within 10 years over 65 per cent of assistant deputy ministers and 51 per cent of deputy ministers will retire. A careful examination of the senior public service labour market across the country demonstrates that executive compensation in British Columbia is not keeping pace. Changes are needed to maintain B.C.’s competitiveness in recruiting and retaining the talent necessary to lead the public serviceâe¦.

Effective August 1, 2008, the maximum payable salary to deputy ministers increased from $221,760 to $299,215 and from $243,936 to $348,600 for the deputy minister to the Premier. The maximum achievable salary for assistant deputy ministers increased from $160,000 to $195,000. The salary holdback component, which is based on specific performance measures linked to leadership on building the corporate human resources of the Province, will increase from five per cent of salary to 10 per cent of salary for both deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministersâe¦.”

The amount of the salary raise for an assistant deputy minister alone is far more than the annual wage of a minimum wage worker, and even more than some government workers. The deputy minister raise of over $77,000 per year is more than the annual salary of most of the government’s employees, the majority of whom make between $35,000 and $65,000 per year.

The rationale for this obscene increase in salaries is that executives elsewhere are making more, and B.C. needs to be competitive. The question arises, why do we have to be competitive in greed? Should we be trusting our public service to people whose main motivation is to squeeze as much money from us as possible? Six figure salaries are nothing to sneeze at, even low six figures, and certainly the government would continue to find many qualified people at the current high rates of pay. So, why this raise? More importantly, why this raise and not a raise in the minimum wage?

The difference is that this raise benefits the managerial class, the people that put this government in power and whose interests it serves. Just like privatizing public assets and outsourcing services to private corporations, even foreign corporations, this move by the government is another act to move wealth upwards from the average citizen to the top of pecking order. The rich take care of themselves, and with our tax dollars, too.

Rather than blowing our finances on overpaid government mandarins, perhaps the resources would be better utilized providing more services for the least fortunate amongst us. And perhaps the government would do more for the well being of this province if it raised the minimum wage above the poverty level, instead of leaving it below where it currently resides.

A recent study at the University of California found that minimum wage hikes actually increase productivity. Instead of giving high paid bureaucrats another $30 or $40 dollars an hour or more perhaps the government should consider giving our minimum wage workers another $3 or $4. Unlike handouts to the rich, it would benefit us all.