“Un-freakin’ believable.”

That’s the term one B.C. voter used Wednesday to describe recent pay hikes in Christy Clark’s office.

Abbotsford resident Andrea Klassen describes B.C. Liberals as “lying, cheating, pandering pigs” on this newspaper’s website, adding, “I can’t believe [Christy Clark’s] arrogance, to give such astronomical raises out while kids go hungry at school, while twentysomethings cannot find work.”

The hikes boost salaries for her political staff by as much as 18 per cent, allowing some to qualify for paycheques as high as $230,000.

Burnaby’s Jan Carroll also pulled no punches: “beyond disgusting. It makes me sick.”

Dozens of other writers were just as critical.

They pointed to a new $25 monthly charge for wheelchair users at provincial extended care homes.

They noted B.C. seniors on fixed incomes must pay MSP premiums, unlike seniors in other provinces. In Alberta, such levies on seniors were scrapped in 2009.

The fact is, politicians and their staff across the country have long been insulating themselves from financial realities out there by giving themselves hefty pay and plummy benefit packages.

They justify it by asserting, talented people won’t do these jobs unless the compensation is sufficient to attract them.

Former prime minister Jean Chretien, who engineered a significant boost to politicians’ pay back in the nineties, argued robust pay packets for MPs are fully justified.

Base pay for federal MPs got boosted again two months ago, to $160,200.

And politicians have a penchant for manoeuvering pay hikes just before legislative breaks. In this latest case, Clark’s outgoing cabinet quietly made the arrangement on June 3.

The assumption doubtless is that voters forget by the time the next election rolls around.

The B.C. premier is paid $193,500 a year, consisting of an MLA’s base pay of $101,859 with the balance paid for being premier.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper earns $320,000 annually.

Meanwhile, mean family income in Canada is $69,860.

In B.C., it’s lower: $66,970 — only marginally higher than incomes in Manitoba. (BC Stats puts average incomes for hourly employees at $45,604.)

Yet, Manitoba’s premier receives just $164,500 a year, MLAs, $89,500.

Whether you think politicians are too highly paid or not paid enough, they surely ought to earn more than their political staffers.

In B.C.’s case, according to these latest pay hikes, Clark’s deputy chief of staff Michele Cadario will earn more than her boss — $195,148.

Chiefs of staff to B.C. ministers will now be able to earn $102,000 — slightly more than an MLA.

But the best basis of comparison for political staffers is what their counterparts elsewhere are earning.

In Ontario, with a population three times that of B.C., a deputy chief of staff to the premier earns $161,054, a chief of staff, $263,948.

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, earns $172,200 annually.

The B.C. premier’s office is defending the salary increases by pointing to the bigger budgetary picture; the overall budget for Clark’s political staff is set to decrease this year from $5.741 million to $5.711 million, for a drop of .005 per cent — hardly sufficient to impress British Columbians struggling with the largest debt loads and highest housing costs in Canada.

Statistics Canada says average hourly wages in B.C. grew four per cent between May 2012 and May 2013. Inflation is around 1 per cent.

Integrity B.C., a non-profit political watchdog group, is asking the budget-conscious premier to rescind the pay increases, which may be a spit in the provincial bucket but, symbolically, are incendiary.

It’s good advice. Clark should take it.

byaffe@vancouversun.com