A letter of expectation has gone to the council's investment arm, Christchurch City Holdings, to close the gap between the highest- and lowest-paid employees.
The letter was made public after a vote and the matter was discussed in a public council meeting on Thursday.
Stand-in chairman James Daniels said the council made the call to talk about it publicly.
"Senior executive salaries were to be monitored more closely and then reported back, that's the important part too but it got changed. There were a few amendments made yesterday."
Daniels said it is still important to hold some talks in private.
Councillor Mike Davidson said the council needs to indicate what it wants from its companies - without micro-managing them.
"It is actually good to have this debate in a public setting. We all want our companies to be successful, we need them to be successful but success should not be measured just by the size of a dividend."
