By Chelsea Boyle
The cost of paying staff at Carterton District Council has risen by almost $700,000 over the past five years.
The most sizeable increase was 2016, as of July 1, when the wage bill had risen by about $230,000.
Four years ago, at the same time, it was $2,414,946 and in 2014 it was $2,583,149.
Since then it has continued to rise, reaching $2,687,883 in 2015 and $2,921,906 in 2016.
It jumped almost $200,000 to get to the new 2017 figure (annualised on February 20) of $3,112,075.
Chief executive Jane Davis said increases over the years had been largely due to costs of living adjustments and staff members “growing in their roles”.
The biggest change had been moving people from contract onto salary, she said.
Staff had increased by 1.5 in fulltime equivalents (FTEs) between 2015 and 2016.
FTEs increased from 2016 to 2017 by 3.4 as positions were moved around.
A part of that process was bringing financial support and Neighbourhood Support in-house.
Having on-hand financial support had led to more reports and questions raised by councillors were answered more swiftly, Ms Davis said.
“That’s been absolutely fantastic,” she said.
“All of sudden we have quicker access to information.”
Moving Neighbourhood Support into the information centre had helped the service be “more connected with our community”.
And while she noted it was a disadvantage to not be alongside other Neighbourhood Support workers in the Masterton office, those contacts had been retained.
Ms Davis said some of the increases over the past two years had been off-set by savings in contractor costs.
These were reportedly about $130,000 in 2016 and $130,150 in 2017.
Times-Age recently reported that the Masterton District Council staff wage bill is now $1.4m more a year than mid-2014.
Twelve staff members are earning over $100,000 a year, compared with exactly half that number being in that salary bracket as of June, 2014.
Five staff members at Carterton District Council are earning between $100,000 and $200,000, compared with two in that bracket in 2013.
CDC wage bracket spread for 2017:
Under $60,000 (43 staff), $60,000 to $79,999 (9 staff), $79,999 to $99,999 (four staff), $100,000 to $200,000 (five staff).
In 2013 they were:
Under $60,000 (38 staff), $60,000 to $79,999 (8 staff), $79,999 to $99,999 (four staff), $100,000 to $200,000 (two staff).
