Ontario's Highest Paid Mayors (2025)

Markham's Frank Scarpitti tops the province at $308,179 — more than Toronto, Ottawa, or any other mayor in Ontario. Here's how every major city's top official ranked on the 2025 Sunshine List.

Every year Ontario's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act — the so-called Sunshine List — requires any public-sector employer to publish the names, titles, and salaries of employees earning $100,000 or more. Municipal mayors are no exception. In 2025, 13 Ontario mayors cleared the threshold, ranging from just under $200,000 to well above $300,000.

The list reveals some surprises. Markham's mayor earns more than Toronto's. A former Ontario NDP leader and a former Liberal leader both appear. And one mayor has been on the list every single year since 2004 — with a salary that has nearly tripled in that time.

2025 Rankings: Ontario's Highest Paid Mayors

2025 Sunshine List salary for Ontario mayors, sorted highest to lowest. All salaries above $100,000 are disclosed under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act.

Frank Scarpitti: Ontario's Highest Paid Mayor — By a Long Way

The gap at the top is striking. Frank Scarpitti, Markham's mayor since 2003, earns $308,179 — nearly $68,000 more than Olivia Chow in Toronto, a city roughly 10 times Markham's size. It is the highest mayoral salary in Ontario's Sunshine List history, and it is Scarpitti's own record.

Scarpitti first appeared on the Sunshine List in 2004 at $104,366. Over 21 consecutive years, his salary has grown by 195% — nearly tripling while the Bank of Canada's inflation target averaged 2% annually. Markham's council sets the mayor's salary, and it has risen steadily through step increases and periodic compensation reviews, with no year showing a decrease since Scarpitti took office.

Frank Scarpitti's Sunshine List salary, 2004–2025. Markham became a City in 2012, which coincided with accelerated compensation growth.

Two Former Party Leaders, Now Mayors

Perhaps the most politically notable names on the 2025 list are Steven Del Duca (Vaughan, $218,545) and Andrea Horwath (Hamilton, $212,764) — both former provincial party leaders who moved to municipal politics after their respective election losses.

Del Duca led the Ontario Liberals in the 2022 provincial election, where the party failed to achieve official party status. He subsequently became Vaughan's mayor in 2022 and has appeared on the Sunshine List each year since, with his salary growing from $201,652 in 2023 to $218,545 in 2025. Horwath, who led the Ontario NDP for 16 years before stepping down after the 2022 election, was elected Hamilton's mayor in a by-election later that year. Her 2025 salary of $212,764 is up from $201,592 when she started in 2023.

Why Does Markham Pay More Than Toronto?

It is a reasonable question. Toronto has a population of roughly 2.9 million; Markham has around 380,000. Yet Markham's mayor earns $67,830 more than Toronto's. The answer lies in how municipalities set mayoral compensation, and in the long tenure effects of staying in office.

Most Ontario municipalities use a compensation framework that ties mayoral salary to a council benchmark, which itself is periodically reviewed against comparators and inflation indices. Mayors with long tenures benefit from compounding step increases. Toronto's mayoral salary, while also substantial, has seen more turnover — John Tory resigned in early 2023 after serving since 2014, and Olivia Chow took office in mid-2023. Chow's $240,349 reflects a partial first full year of full compensation, though the Toronto mayoral salary is set independently by council and subject to different benchmarking than Markham's.

Scarpitti's 21-year tenure, combined with Markham's aggressive compensation benchmarking against its status as one of Ontario's wealthiest and fastest-growing cities, has produced a salary that no other Ontario mayor currently matches.

Veteran Mayors: Years of Consecutive Sunshine List Appearances

Several mayors on the 2025 list have long tenures. Beyond Scarpitti's 21 years, Rob Burton of Oakville has appeared for multiple terms and currently earns $210,448. Andrew Dilkens of Windsor has been on the list since 2017, when his salary was $109,928 — it has since grown to $218,949 in 2025, a rise of 99% in eight years.

Marianne Meed Ward of Burlington offers an interesting case: she first appeared as mayor in 2018 (earning $109,903 in what was a part-year), then took a full-year salary of $181,532 in 2019. By 2025, that had grown to $214,252. The pattern across most long-serving mayors is consistent: first-year salaries cluster around $180,000–$200,000, and each subsequent year brings incremental growth in the 3–6% range.

What the Numbers Do — and Don't — Tell Us

The Sunshine List captures base salary paid in a calendar year. It does not include the full picture of municipal compensation: many mayors receive additional benefits, allowances for expenses, or pension contributions that are not disclosed under the Act. The disclosed salary is the floor, not the ceiling, of total compensation.

It is also worth noting that the $100,000 threshold — unchanged since the legislation was introduced in 1996 — has not kept pace with inflation. In today's dollars, the original threshold would be closer to $175,000. As a result, the Sunshine List now captures a far wider slice of the public sector than it did in its first year, including most experienced teachers, police officers, and virtually every municipal mayor in the province.

The Bottom Line

Ontario's 2025 Sunshine List confirms what anyone following municipal politics might have expected: mayoral salaries have grown substantially over the past decade, driven by tenure effects, periodic compensation reviews, and cost-of-living increases. The range among disclosed mayors spans from $196,159 (Newmarket) to $308,179 (Markham) — a gap of over $112,000 between cities that are not dramatically different in size or complexity.

Frank Scarpitti's salary stands as the clear outlier — a function of 21 uninterrupted years of incremental increases and Markham's own compensation benchmarking decisions. Whether that figure reflects appropriate compensation for running one of Ontario's fastest-growing cities, or represents a case study in unchecked escalation, is a question local taxpayers and council members will continue to debate.