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Kapiti Coast District Council chief executive Pat Dougherty. - Source: KC News -
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Reports of the latest bumper payrise for a council executive has led to calls for the Government to clamp down on excessive public sector salaries.
One politician has described getting a top council job like winning the lottery for some people.
The comments follow reports of Kapiti Coast District Council chief executive Pat Dougherty being given a $44,000 pay rise, taking his annual salary to $285,000 - an extra 18.2% a year.
Kapiti ratepayers face a 12% rates hike next year, but Councillor Tony Lloyd defended the move, telling the Dominion Post that although $44,000 was a lot of money, Dougherty did a "bloody good job" and "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys".
It follows a similarly hefty raise for his Christchurch counterpart, Tony Marryatt, who scooped a 14.4% pay rise which has sparked public protests and anger among councillors.
New Zealand First is considering bringing in a private members bill to curb the salary increases.
Christchurch based List MP Denis O'Rourke says local government bosses were forgetting their public service role.
"The council's performance has been widely criticised and in these circumstances the outrage which has been expressed in Canterbury at the CEO's remuneration increase is understandable," he said.
"In Kapiti it is hard to understand how the CEO justified an increase that amounts to a lot more than pensioners in his area are trying to live on."
O'Rourke said being appointed to a top local government job is like winning a Lotto jackpot and called for elected councillors to show more responsibility with public funds.
The salary increases are in stark contrast to the situation for average New Zealanders.
The latest available data from Statistics New Zealand shows the average wage rise last year was just 2%.
The annual rate and median hourly wages increased at their lowest level for 11 years last year.
A recent study by the OECD also found the gap between New Zealand's rich and poor has widened more than in any other developed country during the past 20 years.
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