B.C. public sector salaries database: 10th edition (2023)

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We have updated this database. You can search the new version HERE.

The Vancouver Sun has collected the names and salaries of close to 90,000 workers who make more than $75,000 a year at approximately 100 public sector agencies in B.C., and put them all into a searchable database.

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These employees work for the provincial government, city halls, universities and colleges, school districts, health authorities, Crown corporations, some police departments, and other agencies that use taxpayers’ money to fund their payrolls.

Search by workplace, sector, last name or position using the fields below.

For more about how to use the database and highlights of our series, see below.

Public sector salaries: About the series

This is the 10th time since 2007 that the Sun has produced its popular database. What’s different this year, though, is we paid to determine the gender breakdown of these workers by submitting their first names to Gender-API.com. Results with less than a 95 per cent confidence score from the API were excluded from the analysis, so of the nearly 90,000 names in the database, we have reliable gender information for two-thirds of them.

Our analysis found that just over half of these employees are women, meaning the overall public workforce is balanced along gender lines. But when we divided remuneration into pay-scale buckets, we discovered women dominated the lowest pay group and men were overrepresented at the higher salaries.

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Starting Saturday, Feb. 1, the print edition of the Vancouver Sun will publish a six-part series based on our analysis of this salary data.

The stories contain some fascinating facts, such as:

• A major gender imbalance at most of the largest municipalities in Metro Vancouver. Four out of every five city hall workers who make more than $75,000 a year are men.

• Only 16 of the 100 highest-paid university employees are women, and UBC has the lion’s share of top-earning academics.

• Within the provincial government, only six of the top 25 highest-paid employees are women.

• The highest paid public sector worker is the CEO of the B.C. Investment Management Corporation, who makes $3 million. There are 48 people who make more than a half-million dollars a year on the public purse.

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• There are nearly 3,800 public sector employees who make more than Premier John Horgan, who pocketed $172,000 in 2018, according to the data provided to The Sun.

• B.C. Hydro pays 100 people more than $200,000 a year, in addition to the 40 people who make at least $200,000 at its subsidiary Powerex.

You will also hear about some oddities, such as a fire chief and a police chief who pocketed far more than their peers.

If you have any questions about the database, or a story idea based on what you see in the database, please email lculbert@postmedia.com or ngriffiths@postmedia.com.

Look for Part 1 of our six-part series online Friday, Jan. 31.

How to use our public sector salaries database

THE BASICS: There are five search fields. You can search in any single field, or in multiple fields to narrow your search.

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AGENCY: The agency field has an auto complete function. So, for instance, if you type in “city of” it will offer you all available choices. Search the agency’s full name and not its acronym.

NAME: Search by surname first. If you’re searching by first name as well, note that many organizations list staff only by surname and first initial.

TITLE: Not sure of someone’s title? You can search by partial word, such as“tech,”which will bring up all titles including“technician”and“technology.”

DEPARTMENTS: Want to know what everyone in a department makes? Search the Agency name, then search the position — for example: B.C. Hydro, and technician. You can also search thePositionfield for“tenure” to see how much all tenured professors at UBCearn.

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REMUNERATION BY POSITION: Want to know what all people in a certain field in B.C. earn? Search the title, for example, “teacher.”

Want to know which teachers make more than $100,000? Fill in those fields and the list will come up. You can also look at the bottom and see that there are 91 people in B.C. whose title is “teacher” who earn $100,000 or more.

REMUNERATION BY AMOUNT: If you want to know the name of everyone who makes more than $200,000 in B.C., type 200000 into the Salary field and it will bring up everyone’s name across all organizations.

SECTOR: Curious what all staff at Crown corporations earn, or what staff at universities and colleges make? Search by sector.

ORDER: Any field can be ordered from highest to lowest, or vice versa, by clicking on the chevron.

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SKIP AHEAD: Skip pages to get closer to the name of the person you’re searching.

Note to readers

The analysis was based on employment data from 2018 or the 2017/18 fiscal year, depending on how an agency tracks its finances. Some of the names and positions in the database may be out of date if someone retired or moved jobs in 2019, but the analysis provides a recent snapshot in time of public sector payrolls in our province.

Methodology

The database includes pay for more than 88,800 public servants earning more than $75,000 working at over 100 public sector agencies, including the provincial government, Crown corporations, health authorities, municipalities, universities and colleges, school districts and municipal police departments. We gathered the data from publicly available compensation disclosure reports and freedom of information requests.

Remuneration information includes base salary, overtime, vacation payouts and severance.

lculbert@postmedia.com

ngriffiths@postmedia.com

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Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.