During last Wednesday’s City Council meeting Human Resources Director Veronica Madrigal presented the results of the City’s compensation study. It was not good news for the City Council who were already discussing potential budget cuts this year.
Classification and Compensation Study
The study, performed by Public Sector Personnel Consultants found that the City had 328 distinct positions and a total of 900 employees.
As part of the study they benchmarked the City’s positions with other comparator cities and organizations to match positions and come up with benchmark positions. They identified 230 positions as benchmark positions, using the midpoint of those ranges for comparison.
The result was that 39% of city employees’ salaries are below market, 44% are within the competitive range and 17% are above that range.
DFW Cities Skew Results
One factor the council will have to discuss is whether to exclude comparator cities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as part of the consideration.
Salaries in that region are high compared to the other comparator cities and skew the results higher.
The council was presented with two models it could use. The first including DFW cities and the second excluding them. The few council members that discussed that point indicated a desire to not include the DFW comparators.
Either way, to bring those employees who fall below the competitive range up to market rate is projected to cost an additional $4 to $5 Million in an already strained budget year.
The Real Number Will Be Higher
These numbers do not include police and fire. They are civil service positions and have different rules related to compensation. They are also further behind the market in compensation.
It also does not include the additional costs of increased benefits. Benefits will run an addition 18-20% on top of that.
Another factor the city will have to consider is whether it wants to just bring the employees up to the minimum competitive salary, or if it will maintain the pay range difference based upon seniority or other factors.
This was a preliminary presentation and no real debate or discussion took place at the meeting.
The Council will discuss this and other budget topics at its next workshop some time in late March.
