City council members' salaries are too low and need to be raised, a special panel has decided.

At their weekly meeting Monday evening, council heard that the mayor's annual salary of $66,800 and councillors' remuneration of $13,363 a year are insufficient.

City manager Dennis Shewfelt reviewed the results of the Elected Official Compensation Committee Monday evening for council. It stated the mayor's salary should come in at $72,500 annually and city councillors should pull down $17,500 a year.

The committee was made up of Terry Weninger, Yukon College's acting president, long-time resident Elaine Smart and Doug Ayers, owner/operator of Doug Ayers Reporting Services.

'Council has always brought this forward at this point to be implemented for another council,' Shewfelt said.

'Findings showed that the mayor's salary would be $77,000 if it followed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the union range. The salaries of the city's elected officials have not risen in 10 years.'

According to city documents, the Elected Official Compensation Committee followed terms of reference which included contacting and surveying eight other municipalities to see how Whitehorse sizes up in terms of paying politicians.

The terms of reference were: 'That the compensation paid to the mayor and members of Whitehorse city council should be appropriate to reflect both the demanding nature and responsibilities of that public office, as well as to attract and retain capable candidates from all walks of life.'

The committee reviewed, according to city documents, other communities of a similar size, information with respect to negotiated wage increases in Whitehorse, and the models for ongoing remuneration reviews in other jurisdictions.

Weninger said this morning he believes members of city council are currently underpaid, compared to other jurisdictions, and that the recommended increase is a way of levelling the playing field a little with other cities' compensation packages.

While the committee doesn't feel it's politically acceptable to bring the salaries as high as they would have been had they followed union increases or the CPI, Weninger said, members did feel another recommendation they produced would make strides toward achieving equitable payment for politicians.

'We recommended that (salaries) should be reviewed on an annual basis,' Weninger said.