Salary Survey
Prairie
49 Posts
We are a public entity and historically, our salaries have been below that of the private sector. Informal salary surveys with similar organizations have not been useful because of differences in positions, responsibilities, etc. We would like to have a salary study done by an outside firm. Can anyone recommend someone they have used successfully? Cost is a factor.
Comments
The other way is to use this forum and ask the like organizations on line for their information that might help you.
PORK
Your cheapest solution is to create a spirit of cooperation among your neighboring cities and share free salary information, and also names of firms they have used for studies. Perhaps you can create a survey sheet that is emailable and easy to complete. That may help you identify some of the key wage issues that I assume you feel are causing you turnover or hiring difficulties.
Maybe if you are restricted financially to improve salaries you can look at other ways to improve benefits or working conditions. We all know that money is important, but there are tradeoffs often of even greater value.
Finding a consultant with experience surveying townships, which, no offense intended, speaks to me of being less than several thousand citizens, will be difficult. Even if you pay someone else to do the survey work, their success will be based on who they find willing to participate in the survey, and it sounds like you've already explored that market with minimal degree of success.
I don't know how many employees or positions you have or what problems you are encountering, but resolving this on your own may be your best choice.
Would you mind sharing the size of your township, and I'm also curious to know if you are in a rural or urban environment? And as long as I'm being nosy, is there some issue that has prompted this project? Turnover, unusual griping, no applicant flow, everyone topped out in pay, no COLAs in a while? I would be skeptical, but envious, if your town leaders simply feel like the workforce is underpaid and they want to pay more and are willing to raise taxes to do so.
I just received an e-mail from a fellow member of an HR organization I belong to that did a similar survey for our Library, but like I said before, we’re open to all suggestions, and this is all part of the research.
Thanks for your suggestions!
Out of my "HOG Waller" but it is only a suggestion.
PORK
Sorry to keep deviating from your original post, but your statement about not participating in Social Security caught my eye. How do you get around that?
Is the firm who did the 1999 survey still around? Or perhaps there are some old records of other firms who put in bids back then too that you can contact now.
The Social Security Act did not cover public employees because there was some concern about the constitutionality of the federal government’s ability to tax state and local governments. Starting in the 1950’s, state and local governments had the option of selecting Social Security coverage for their employees or maintaining pension plans. In 1983, state and local governments in the Social Security system were prohibited by law from opting out of it (but those who did not participate could maintain their status of non-participation if they had a qualifying pension plan). Social Security coverage for state and local government employees varies within states – we are the only township in the Chicago area that does not participate in SS. (I have reams of paperwork on this and have learned A LOT in 3 years!). Our pension is designed to take the place of SS, but at retirement, we have the option of taking a lump sum, or a life annuity. Most ee’s take the lump sum. The down side is that employees who have never worked anywhere else have no SS benefits, including disability. We do provide STD and LTD benefits. Another downside is the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. If you are eligible for SS benefits, and receive a pension from working for a government agency, a portion of your pension is used to offset your SS benefits. I looked into the possibility of participating in SS two years ago. We would be required to hold a referendum of employees – at that time, close to 60% of our employees were over 50, participation would not give them more than the pension, and it would cost them 6% of their take-home pay. This would also cost the township an addition $100,000 or more per year. It’s not likely to happen at this point.
The person that did our salary survey in 1999 was from one of our local community colleges – he is not on the faculty list anymore. I hear a good deal of dissatisfaction with the job that he did, and would rather get a fresh study done from a new source. There were no bids in 1999 - the Board circumvented that somehow.
Sorry to be so lengthy, but it was not a simple answer.