Since the federal government started posting the salaries of aboriginal chiefs and councillors earlier this year, we've been scanning through the docs and taking note of some of the higher pay amounts out there.

I've posted a couple pay comparison tables in the past that showed some of the high salaries we noticed along with pay for full-time politicians off reserve; mayors serving much larger communities. 

Now that the federal government has noted 91% of bands are compliant with the new disclosure law, below is our latest pay comparison table. But before I get to the table, here are a couple 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 to see the sources for the pay details for chiefs and councillors - 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, so I've made adjustments there too. If you wish to convert any chief and council tax-free figures into equivalent taxable earnings, EY's online tax calculator is a tool that is quite handy - click here.

3) 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 discussions about compensation and benefits for off reserve politicians, it’s the outliers that receive more attention...