The Remuneration Authority, which sets the pay rates annually, has completed its determination for 2024/2025.
Chair Geoff Summers said the new rates were determined “with a lot of difficulty” but the increase aligns with the public sector.
“It’s complicated because local government is complicated. It probably takes more of our time each year to do local government than it takes for all of our other client groups.”
The 2023/24 pay rates show how much the salary varies across the country.
In Christchurch, the mayor earns $200,000 but in Kaikōura it is $86,000.
Councillors with no extra responsibilities earn $23,155 in Stratford, to more than $100,00 in Christchurch and Wellington.
Summers said the authority devised a sizing system for councils after a full review in 2018 of how pay is set for local government members.
“We had to find a way of being fair to everybody. We worked out the size of each council as compared to each other so that two councils of a relatively similar size would get a relatively similar remuneration pool.”
“It also goes through a complicated process of weighting to which there’s not a lot of science. It’s just us trying to be fair and consistent.
“We leave Auckland out – it’s an outlier because it’s so big – and we leave Chatham Islands out because it’s so small. That leaves Christchurch as the biggest, and we then size them all the way down to determine a remuneration pool for each.”
Summers said councillors in two councils of a similar size might be paid differently depending on the number of elected members.
“If one council has 12 councillors and another has only 10, the remuneration pool would be the same but shared out differently.”
He said the Authority decides the remuneration pool available to each council, but councils themselves advise how they want to allocate the money.
“Councils tell us what their various roles should be paid according to the needs of the area – for example, what number of councillors chair committees, or the workload of a deputy mayor.”
Summers said pay rates would be reviewed again using the latest data before local body elections next October.
“Every three years we have another look at the sizing and the factors used to determine remuneration.
“We need people to know before they put their name forward as a candidate what they are likely to be paid.”
In the intervening years, the Authority applies Statistics New Zealand’s labour cost index to align elected member pay rates with wages across the public sector.
By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporting
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
