City’s top earners are all men

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This article was published 07/07/2019 (2001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s something missing from the City of Winnipeg’s top nine income-earners of 2018: women.

The highest-paid staff members, including the city’s senior managers, police chief and three deputy police chiefs, are all men.

The city’s 10th top earner is a police constable, who raked in $199,540, which is more than what Mayor Brian Bowman earned last year: $188,741. The constable’s gender is not made public in the disclosure list, which was recently released. The list provides names, job titles and salaries of 7,000 individuals who made more than $50,000 last year. It doesn’t give the names of police officers for privacy reasons.

Of the top 100 earners, there are 39 men and seven women. The remaining 54 aren’t named because they are police officers. In the Winnipeg Police Service, more than 80 per cent of sworn police officers are men. Overall, just 30 per cent of the city’s workers are women.

The city’s human resources director, Angie Cusson, a diversity specialist who was hired last year, acknowledged the city has a gender problem.

“We recognize that we have some work to do and that’s why it’s been a priority for us,” she said.

Cusson said at some other public organizations where she has worked, especially in health care, there were more women in leadership roles.

She noted the majority of staff in the city’s human resources department are women, and the legal department has many women.

“The landscape is changing every day… more and more women are coming on board to the city,” she said. “We continue to be committed to increasing diversity… it’s actually a great time to be looking at coming and trying to be part of the leadership team at the city.”

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said across Canada, about 30 per cent of senior city managers are women. It ranked Winnipeg 18th out of 26 cities and concluded there are more than two men for every woman in senior management.

“Certainly at the more senior levels, what we’ll always look for is ensuring that the qualifications of the jobs are considered,” Cusson said. “We’re certainly seeing an increase in representation in women at those senior levels, and we’ll continue to look for opportunities where we can promote women in senior positions.”

Cusson said she is creating a new position, a full-time diversity program co-ordinator, to build a diversity strategy. There’s also a new initiative to hire more women in the trades.

“We absolutely understand the importance of building a diverse workforce, making sure that we’re representative of our community and the residents that we serve,” Cusson said.

Gord Delbridge, president of CUPE Local 500, which represents about 4,600 city workers, said the lack of female top earners, as well as women representing only 30 per cent of the city’s workforce, is a concern.

“It’s something we are very cognizant of. Our union (has) tried to break down a lot of barriers, pay equity is always on our minds, but the city should be trying to do more and recognizing the staff and leadership should be reflective of society.”

Cusson said the city wants to get more diversity in other areas — Indigenous people made up about nine per cent of staff, visible minorities about 13 per cent, and people with disabilities about 2.5 per cent, the report states.

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Jeremy Davis, a spokesman for Mayor Brian Bowman, said the high number of men at the top of the city’s salary scale — as well as the low percentage of women in the civic workforce — “demonstrates the City of Winnipeg has work to do to build a more inclusive workplace.

“The mayor looks forward to working with the new CAO to better address workplace equity and inclusion efforts, and in the meantime will be raising this with the interim CAO.”

As for a constable earning a higher salary than even the mayor, Davis said part of the problem lies with the provincial government.

“The current provincial rules, regarding public compensation disclosure reports, should be more open and transparent,” he said.

“Currently such reports do not provide sufficient details regarding an employee’s compensation. That’s why a request has been made to the provincial government to legally allow the city to disclose more information. Unfortunately that request has not been accepted.”

Davis said, beyond that, the police chief could better speak about compensation paid to officers.

— with files from Kevin Rollason

tvanderhart@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @tessavanderhart