Ontario’s $100,000 club up by 32%

One in 10 government workers in Ontario earns more than $100,000, according to figures released yesterday.

The data show the number of highly paid Ontario public service employees shot up by nearly 32% in 2008. Fully 6,791 OPS workers earn more than $100,000 annually. The provincial bureaucracy employs 68,645 people.

The broader public sector, which includes schools, universities, municipalities, hospitals, hydro and other agencies, saw a 26% jump in high earners over one year earlier.

Jim Hankinson, CEO of Ontario Power Generation, was the highest-paid public-sector employee in 2008, having earned nearly $2.5-million in salary and benefits. Michael Nobrega, CEO of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, was second, earning more than $2-million.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan downplayed the numbers, saying the salaries were nothing like the "stratospheric" compensation given to U. S. executives in the private sector.

In December, Mr. Duncan imposed a 1.5% wage hike on senior managers in the public service and suggested a voluntary cap for broader public sector employees.

He shrugged off suggestions to go further by implementing a public sector wage freeze. He said the salaries are needed in places such as his hometown of Windsor, where government is now the top employer.

"Our restaurants, our small businesses depend on those public-sector salaries."

Mr. Duncan also suggested a large swath of the high earners would not have made the list if the $100,000 threshold was adjusted for inflation.

The so-called "sunshine list" was put in place in 1996.

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