Pity Claudio Abballe. The city of Toronto “firefighter mechanical” made Ontario’s annual Sunshine List of employees who make $100,000 or more each year by a mere $94.76.

If he’d earned $100 less he never would have made the list, along with other provincial public sector workers this year that includes nurses, police constables, teachers, college professors, legal aid duty counsels and bus operators. In other words: not what’s normally thought of as “fat cats.”

The point? The list, originally launched in 1996 to spotlight public workers earning six figures and up, needs to be indexed to inflation if it is to truly act as a check on public sector wages.

Consider that in 1996 only 4,576 names appeared on the list. This year it captured 123,572 names, up from 115,431 last year.

But that doesn’t mean public sector salaries are ballooning out of control.

The net is now actually capturing those who are earning the equivalent of $67,925 in 1996 dollars. Was the list really introduced to put a spotlight on pay packages at that level?

Indeed, the $100,000 paid back in 1996 is the equivalent of $149,424 now — almost $50,000 more, which your average nurse is definitely not making.

And all of those on the list may not even be making $100,000 in regular salaries. They are often captured in the net because of overtime or even because they are retiring and are being reimbursed for unused vacation credits.

More important for government transparency and accountability are the names at the top of the list, whose salaries Ontarians may well want to question.

The highest-paid person, for example, was Ontario Power Generation president and CEO Jeff Lyash, who made $1.16 million in 2016. Another member of the million-dollar club was retired University of Toronto president and CEO William Moriarty, who was paid $1.05 million.

Even then, the list doesn’t tell us what we really need to know. Are these people overpaid or do their pay packages truly reflect what is required to find someone with the skills to do those jobs?

And why should anyone making just over $100,000 appear on the same list as them?

It’s not that $100,000 isn’t a good salary. According to the 2011 census, the average salary for Ontarians who worked full-time was $61,495, though that surely will increase when 2016 figures are released in September.

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And Premier Kathleen Wynne ($208,974 last year) is right when she says that “$100,000 is still a lot of money.”

Still, it’s not the $150,000 it would be if the Sunshine List had been indexed to inflation. It’s time that was done so it will have the meaning it did when it was launched in 1996. The goal should be to have a deterrent on out-of-control salary increases, not put innocent workers in the glare of an annual publicity stunt.