Councillors are set to vote on whether to further increase the salaries of 21 members at a council meeting on Thursday – all as council rates are set to go up 4%.
All councillors will get a 3.3% salary increase to their base pay this year due to legislation passed at Holyrood, bringing it up to £26,839, up from £25,982 – an extra £857.
But officers are recommending that the council vote to apply the boost to SRAs – additional pay given to ‘senior councillors’ – as well, which could see one get almost £900 extra.
The 21 senior councillors – out of 63 total – include party group leaders and committee conveners, who take on extra duties beyond those other councillors perform.
In a report before councillors, officers state that applying the boost to senior councillors would keep the council in line with convention around senior councillor pay increases prior to a council decision last year.
Finance convener and Labour councillor Mandy Watt would see her SRA increase by almost £900, which with the £857 base pay boost would give her a total salary of £54,407.
And 14 more councillors, all committee conveners and party group leaders, would get hikes of over £600 per year along with the base pay boost, bringing their total annual salaries to £46,138.
Depute council convener and Labour councillor Lezley Marion Cameron would get a boost of just over £300 to her SRA, bringing her up to £37,868.
Green group co-leaders, councillors Chas Booth and Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill, would each get an SRA increase of just over £300 as well, bringing their compensation to £36,488.
The pair make less than other parties’ group leaders as the Green group splits their leadership role between two councillors
Vice-conveners would get an uplift of just over £350 on their SRAs, which with the base pay hike would bring them to £37,868 per year.
Council leader and Labour councillor Jane Meagher will bring home £73,879 this year, and Lord Provost Robert Aldridge will get £55,409.
However, their rates of compensation are set by statute, and therefore councillors have no power to amend them.
The party leaders who could get hikes of over £1,400 between the base pay boost and SRA increase are Conservative councillor Iain Whyte, Liberal Democrat councillor Ed Thornley and SNP councillor Simita Kumar.
Meanwhile, Labour committee conveners and councillors Stephen Jenkinson, Margaret Graham, Conor Savage, Joan Griffiths, Tim Pogson and James Dalgleish could get the same increase.
Cllr Jenkinson runs the city’s transport committee, Cllr Graham runs the culture and communities committee, Cllr Savage chairs the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, Cllr Pogson runs the city’s housing committee, Cllr Griffiths runs the planning committee, and Cllr Dalgleish runs the education, children and families committee.
And Conservative committee convener Joanna Mowat, as well as SNP committee convener Kate Campbell and Liberal Democrat conveners Neil Ross, Louise Young and Hal Osler could get the increase as well.
Cllr Mowat runs the city’s licensing sub-committee, while Cllr Campbell runs the city’s governance, risk and best value committee.
Cllr Ross runs the regulatory committee, Cllr Young runs the city’s Licensing Board, which handles alcohol licences, and Cllr Osler handles the city’s development management committee.
Conservative councillors Jason Rust and Max Mitchell hold vice-chair positions, with the former on the Licensing Board and the latter on the development management committee.
Councillors will vote on the proposal at the full council meeting on Thursday, March 19.
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