The City Council discussed a change in compensation strategy for city employees that was described as “huge” and “expensive” at the retreat on Thursday, March 24.
It did not appear that the City Council reached a decision on the strategy recommended by Human Resources Director Jamiah Waterman, and not all the recommendations made by Waterman are followed.
For example, in 2021, Waterman presented a number of reasons why the city should not move from a merit based salary plan to a step plan, but the City Council voted to begin the move to a step plan for city employees.
At the retreat, Waterman recommended as a strategy to avoid salary compression and to improve employee retainment that the city preserve employees “comparatios” when making salary adjustments. Since all salary adjustments made in the City of Greensboro are adjustments that increase salaries, you could replace “adjustments” with raises.
The comparatio is the percentage of an employee’s salary in the salary range for their particular position. So if the salary range for a position was $40,000 to $60,000 and an employee was making $50,000, the midpoint of the pay range, and the pay range was increased to $70,000, that employee would receive a raise to $55,000 so they would still be at the midpoint of the pay range. All employees in that pay range would have their salaries adjusted so that they would maintain the same percentage in the pay range when the pay range for their position was raised.
When Waterman suggested this salary strategy, Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said, “What he is talking about would be huge. Everybody in that job would get adjusted.”
Davis said, “This is one of the best ways to address salary compression.”
And Davis added, “It is big and it is expensive.”
Davis said that this would alter the way proposed salary adjustments were presented to the City Council. He said that for instance in the case of raising starting salaries for firefighters by $1,000, the council would be presented with the cost of raising not just the starting salaries but all the salaries affected to prevent compression.
Only in a govt job….lol.
What in the world is this guy talking about? Does anyone understand his proposal? Go back to the merit pay based on performance. If you sit on your a– and do nothing, you do not get a raise. If you do a good job, you get a raise. This is the way that the world works outside of government positions. Only an idiot could come up with something so ridiculous, but that is all that we have in the City of Greensboro.
What happened to the system they just put in place
Well you did have $2 million before you gave it to Crime Violence. There has to be business leaders on this council , people that understand checks and balances. Smart people ,,,, vote them all out.
Government is force. Not intelligent nor good. Leviathan.
What would happen if someone had been at the city for 20 years and was above their mid-point? Would they be demoted? Raises for those doing a good job is the going way to address salaries. Making everyone be the same gives no incentive for good performance
No, they would not be demoted and their salary would remain where it is.
The city should have a salary cap at 10-12% above the salary range midpoint which should also define the salary at that point as above the market rate. Also, eliminate the “maximum” which is not a goal, but is defined as “that’s all folks” we’re willing to pay regardless of qualifications or tenure. Remember, each year or two the range is adjusted and it’s rare for any employee to get there just by the passage of time. If you move the pay scale 1 or 2% each year (cost of living, recruitment competition with other employers, etc.), and employees move the same percent, then any additional increase would move the employee along to the 10-12% above midpoint, which is where you want them to be. If they are at that % above midpoint, then any increase should be in a lump sum check, not added to their base. If you do that, you’ll never have compression problems. . . . but you’ll still have employees complaining about not being paid enough, having a false maximum, etc.
The step program was not a good idea. Most people didn’t want it. Only a few members of CC did and pushed for it. It’s ridiculous.
Is it too late for me to get on? I have to pay my property tax bill.
With this bright revelation from our Wonderful City Council ;it has every reason to fail because only a few were pushing the issue.Number one if in the past a bonus was given for ideas that saved the department money ( cost cutting) ,they were given a bonus.Now you can hire the homeless to come in and stand around to draw a big check every month.You have taken the incentive to come up with ideas away from these Individuals.
Let’s vote all these people off the board and get a totally new group.Do you miss TRUMP yet!!!
Compression was the key buzz word several years ago under a different manager who left to be in Obama’s cabinet. Don’t remember that? If not, then why is the city all of a sudden talking about compression?
First thing is to ask the question how, and why, did the current “compression” issues materialize if they were fixed in the past? Where are the policies and practices the HR Dept was supposed to implement in order to alleviate the issue of compression? Are you going to pay a new police officer with 10 years in their position with another employer the same as a 10 year veteran of the city? You should since it’s not about “longevity” with the city, but qualifications and experience on the job.
What has the council been doing, or better yet, not doing?
What are they doing about just compensation for all the businesses and taxpayers they put out of work 2 years ago, with their BS shuttering of “non-essential” businesses?
Crooks, everyone of them, and when judgement day comes, they will answer to their maker for all they have done.