Several months ago I uploaded a giant table with some comparisons between aboriginal chiefs and councillors’ salaries, and pay figures earned by mayors of nearby cities.

Not surprisingly, the post went viral and it was shared over 13,000 times on Facebook. Some of the numbers we highlighted were quite out of line with what you might expect.

Well, since that time, more salary info has been posted on the federal government’s web site, so we’ve updated the pay table. But first, a few notes:

1) The table is posted as an image as it’s a real pain in the butt uploading tables to our web site. If you want a PDF of the table – click here. To see the sources for the pay details - click here. 

2) As chief and council pay is tax-free, the off reserve equivalent column is a rough calculation of what someone would have to earn off reserve in order to receive the same take home pay. Note that some cities still provide their council members with one third of their pay as tax-free income as well so we've made adjustments there too.

3) This table highlights some of the higher salary figures that we’ve seen, but it’s not a comprehensive list. New material is being posted each week. Further, please don't consider the figures below as "the norm" - plenty of aboriginal politicians don’t make anywhere near the amounts in the table. But, just as we see with compensation and benefits for off reserve politicians, it’s the outliers that receive more attention...