The Federation of Ratepayers Association of NZ, supports in principle the Ratepayers Alliance in Auckland call to make public the salaries of Auckland Council staff earning over $250,000.

The Council needs to live within its means like everyone else. That includes not paying large salaries to its staff.

Forty percent of Council income is from rates and while not lifting rates is possibly worth $1.83 per week to the Auckland average ratepayer, the symbol that its top staff are happy to take a wage reduction while keeping lower paid staff in work would be good news and a morale booster for staff and ratepayers alike.

If elected members throughout Auckland, and in fact all of New Zealand, also accepted a wage reduction they may encourage Council staff throughout NZ to lower their pay rates as well, while saving jobs.

Normally private sector employees are paid more than Government and Local Government employees, while Government and Local Government employees enjoy job security. These days private sector employees are often paid less than Government (central and local) and have no job security.

It would be good to see the equilibrium return where both local and central Government staff earned less than their private sector counter parts while enjoying job security.

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