After learning that some municipal election workers are not being paid minimum wage, 
Richmond Municipal Council decided to provide a hike increase.
During a virtual meeting of council on Monday night, Chief Administrative Officer Don Marchand told council that poll clerks and deputy returning officers who worked in Richmond County in the 2016 municipal election were being paid less than minimum wage.
The CAO said the municipality has more money in its election budget for 2020 over four years ago.
In response to a question from district 5 councillor Jason MacLean about how they arrived at those numbers, the CAO said he looked at the 2016 election, counted all the poll clerks, deputy returning officers and other staff, meeting expenses, and added the extra expenses, which was in the vicinity of $5,000 to $6,000.
The CAO said after the last election, poll clerks complained because they were paid $130 per day even though they worked up to 13 hours on election day
MacLean said if the minimum wage level in Nova Scotia is $12.65 per hour, then those workers should be paid exactly that amount.
Council approved a motion to pay the workers $165 for election day and $130 for the advanced polls.