KSA increases executive stipends
The executive committee will now be paid $1,592.80 biweekly
The next KSA council meeting will be held on June 23 at 10:00 am, and the next executive meeting is scheduled for June 30 at 2:00 pm. (File photo)
The Kwantlen Student Association held a council meeting on June 23 where a motion was passed to increase executive stipends from $1,273.69 to $1,592.80 which is paid on a bi-weekly basis. The executives receive stipends to recognize the time and work they put into the KSA, according to the association’s Regulations.
President and VP University Affairs Abdullah Randhawa, VP External Affairs Jasmine Kaur Kochhar, VP Finance & Operations Jashandeep Singh, and VP Student Life Jashanpreet Singh Sekhon are each required to work at least 80 hours per bi-weekly pay period, and complete at least 20 hours per week at the KSA’s main office, located on Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus.
The council’s finance committee and governance committee collaborated to develop and propose the motion.
“The stipends haven’t increased from the last few years. The inflation rate, recession, and all the stuff going all around Canada, everything is going up. So that’s why the committee members were working for the [motion],” Randhawa says.
The last time executive stipends were increased was in 2018 from $1,200 to $1,273.69.
“The executive committee [is also] working more than 40 hours [per week], but we consider it as important. We calculated and broke down the [pay per hour] and showed us $15.90 which is below minimum wage,” Randhawa says.
Minimum wage in British Columbia currently sits at $16.75 per hour which has been increasing annually one dollar or more since 2017.
“We decided on [$1,592.80] because we looked at the minimum [pay] for specialists at the KSA. So we don’t want to be paid more than everyone else here, we just wanted to make the minimum [that] staff members get,” Randhawa says.
At the new stipend of $1,592.80, the hourly rate when working 40 hours per week is $19.91, which is the hourly wage KSA specialists receive, Randhawa says.
While the stipends for each executive are increasing, Randhawa says he wants to return the increased difference in money back to the KSA as a donation.
“I brought this increase because my fellow members of the executive committee, they’re working more and they’re not getting paid enough. They’re finding it difficult to handle expenses, like paying rent,” Randhawa says.
“I can’t increase [the stipends] for only three executives and not one executive, there are a lot of legality [issues]. So I’ll be returning the cheques to the accounting department.”
Randhawa says he wants to return the difference in money because this increase was intended for the other executives and not himself.
“I don’t need it for myself. I know the rule is you can do it for others, you can’t do it for your own self. So that’s why I don’t want to have that conflict of interest [with the increase].”
Randhawa says he plans to return the money at the KSA’s annual general meeting at the end of the term. He also says he’s planning to get rid of the executive tuition benefit that the previous executive committee passed, which allows executives to get reimbursed up to 6 credits per semester, and council will be working towards its removal during upcoming meetings.
For more information about the KSA council and to contact an executive, head to www.kusa.ca/student-representatives/.
