Mayor Mathew Dickerson said it was "never a good look" for someone to vote on their own wage increase but that was the position Dubbo councillors were put in at the latest council meeting.
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The councillors all unanimously voted to an increase to their pay on Thursday night, June 23.
"Essentially an increase had been recommended by the government of how much we can be paid and I think it puts councillors in a very unfair position," Cr Dickerson said.
"I don't think it's fair of the state government to say 'here is our recommendation, now you go and vote on that'...but that's the system the government has set up. I would prefer they just told us the amount, full stop, but it just adds that complexity by making councillors vote for their own wage increase."
The mayor will now be paid $62,510 a year on top of the regular councillor fee, while the councillors get $25,310.
"I think it would be fair to say that councillors don't get paid a lot and the number of hours that councillors put in and the responsibility is quite large," Cr Dickerson said.
"You are a councillor 24 hours a day really, I joke with my wife that I go up to get milk from the supermarket and I'll be back in an hour...there is a lot of responsibility for councillors and I don't think councillors are paid a huge amount."
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Cr Dickerson said that if any councillor was there for the money they were going to be "seriously disappointed".
"It's not something I sit there and sweat on and go, 'I can hardly wait to get paid this month because it's going to be fantastic' so if people realise how much we get paid, they might think about it differently when they realise it is such a small raise and again a big responsibility," he said.
In 2021 the previous mayor earned $60,080 a year, while the councillors received $24,320.
According to the report from council the draft 2022/23 budget for councillor fees and the mayoral fee includes a two percent increase on the previous financial year to accommodate the pay rise.
"None of the councillors I've ever known have said 'wow I'm doing it for the money', that is certainly not their focus, they do it for the community because you can earn money a lot easier then the $20,000 or so that you earn as a councillor," he said.