Market Pay Position for Town of Chapel Hill
Based on information provided by the Pay Survey, projections from peer organizations and comparison to current Town ranges and average pay, we believe that implementing the recommendations for a 2 % range increase, a 3.78% step increase to employees below the Job Rate and 4.5% average increase for employees above the Job Rate will place the Town in a competitive pay position for the coming year, with ranges for most jobs falling at or near the 75th percentile of market pay and employee average pay at competitive levels.
The small group of employees whose pay would not be at an appropriate level are listed in the Special Pay Adjustments document, with recommendations for making one-time adjustments to achieve the same competitive pay position for those groups as well.
If all actions recommended are implemented, we believe pay ranges and average employee pay in the Town of Chapel Hill will provide a positive system for recruitment and retention of high-quality productive employees and will serve the Town and the Council’s goals effectively.
DISCUSSION
The survey material has been organized into four key comparisons:
These four comparisons produce a precise picture of how both Town average pay and pay ranges are aligned with the market at the 50th and 75th percentiles. This is useful to see how the labor market has moved to a lesser or greater degree for some Town jobs than for others. This variation is usually explained by the labor market reaction to changes in supply and demand for different types of work.
Here are two examples of how this data was analyzed and applied to develop recommendations for changes.
EXAMPLE 1
· An example of how these comparisons can be used is found in the jobs surveyed from the Service and Trades job family.
|
Town of Chapel Hill Pay Survey |
Comparison of Pay |
Comparison of Ranges |
||
|
Job Title |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 50th %ile |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 75th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Range Average Midpoint at the 50th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Average Range Midpoint at the 75th %ile |
|
Refuse Collector |
14% |
6% |
7% |
3% |
|
Solid Waste Equipment Operator II |
9% |
6% |
27% |
8% |
|
Transit Operator II |
29% |
29% |
18% |
18% |
|
Construction Worker III-Truck Driver |
14% |
12% |
11% |
9% |
|
Senior Heavy Equipment Operator |
0% |
-5% |
9% |
2% |
|
Maintenance Mechanic II |
4% |
-6% |
14% |
2% |
|
Mechanic II |
-2% |
-5% |
2% |
0% |
RANGE MIDPOINT COMPARISON: These jobs were found to have Town range midpoints at or above the 75th percentile of the labor market midpoints by 0% (exactly even) to 18% .
AVERAGE PAY COMPARISON: Average Town pay for the jobs listed above is 6% below to 29% above the 75th percentile of market average pay surveyed.
CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE DATA ANALYZED:
This shows that the market average range midpoints for these jobs are increasing more slowly than the range increases provided by the Town in recent years, and that the 75th percentile of market average employee pay is increasing more slowly than the step increases provided by the Town for these jobs in recent years.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Analysis indicated that no changes in grade or pay were needed to maintain market competitiveness for this group of jobs. If the recommended Town-wide range increase of 2% is approved as recommended, these jobs will require no further action to be competitive at the 75th percentile of pay and ranges. We used a measure of 10% below the compared rate after the grade change to determine whether a grade change would be needed.
EXAMPLE 2
Data on the beginning levels of the Fire and Police career progressions, (Police Officer I and Police Officer II, Fire Equipment Operator were surveyed) indicated that:
|
Town of Chapel Hill Pay Survey |
Comparison of Pay |
Comparison of Ranges |
|
Recommended Adjustments |
||||
|
Job Title |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 50th % ile |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 75th % ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Range Average Midpoint at the 50th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Average Range Midpoint at the 75th %ile |
Actions Recommended (GRADE CHANGES) FROM TO |
Number of Positions |
Cost of Special Adjustment |
|
|
Fire Captain |
-3% |
-17% |
-6% |
-6% |
|
|
|
|
|
Fire Equipment Operator |
-7% |
-8% |
-11% |
-11% |
34 |
35 |
|
|
|
Firefighter I |
Not Surveyed, internal comparison |
31 |
32 |
6 |
13,276 |
|||
|
Master Firefighter |
Not Surveyed, internal comparison |
33 |
34 |
28 |
40,429 |
|||
|
Police Lieutenant |
15% |
-3% |
-6% |
-8% |
40 |
41 |
|
|
|
Police Officer I |
-4% |
-12% |
-10% |
-11% |
32 |
34 |
10 |
51,307 |
|
Police Officer II |
2% |
-13% |
-10% |
-12% |
33 |
35 |
31 |
46,845 |
|
Police Officer III |
Not Surveyed, internal comparison |
34 |
36 |
|
|
|||
|
Police Officer IV |
Not Surveyed, internal comparison |
35 |
37 |
|
|
|||
|
Police Sergeant |
Not Surveyed, internal comparison |
38 |
39 |
|
|
|||
RANGE MIDPOINT COMPARISON:
Town range midpoints are less than the market average range midpoints by 6 to 11% at the 50th % percentile of ranges.
Town range midpoints are less than the 75th percentile of market range midpoints by 6 to 12 %.
AVERAGE PAY COMPARISON:
Town actual average pay for Police Officer I and II, and Fire Equipment Operator are compared to the 75th percentile of pay surveyed: Town pay was 3 to 13 % below market average pay at this percentile.
CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE DATA ANALYZED
This data indicates that actual pay and range midpoints of other organizations surveyed have increased more quickly in recent years than the Town range and pay increases for this group of jobs and employees. If the general increase recommendations are approved as recommended, this group of jobs and employees still would remain below the market average and market 75th percentile.
Using this data allowed us to identify jobs which we would propose moving to higher ranges to place them competitively at the 75th percentile of market average ranges. For example, Police Officer I, currently at grade 32.
|
Job Title |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 50th %ile |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 75th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Range Average Midpoint at the 50th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Average Range Midpoint at the 75th %ile |
Actions Recommended (GRADE CHANGES) FROM TO |
Number of Positions |
Cost of Special Adjustment |
|
|
Police Officer I |
-4% |
-12% |
-10% |
-11% |
32 |
34 |
10 |
51,307.53 |
AVERAGE PAY COMPARISON
Data show that average pay for Police Officer I employees is 4 % less than market average pay at the 50th percentile and 12% less than market average pay at the 75th percentile.
RANGE MIDPOINT COMPARISON
The range midpoint for Police Officer I is 10% lower than the market average range midpoint at the 50th percentile and 11% lower than the average range midpoint at the 75th percentile of range midpoints.
RECOMMENDATION ON RANGE CHANGES
Town pay ranges are 5% apart in the Pay Plan, therefore moving Police Officer I two grades from 32 to 34 would produce a 10% increase in the range midpoint. That is what we have recommended for this job. It is shown in the Recommendations for Range Changes and Special Pay Adjustments report under columns headed FROM and TO in the Section on Special Pay Adjustments. This process of analysis and recommendation is repeated for all jobs listed in this report.
RECOMMENDATIONS ON SPECIAL PAY ADJUSTMENT CHANGES
Note: Our recommendation on changes to Town-wide employee pay is to provide an increase which totals 5.78% (range movement of 2% and step of 3.78%) for those employees below the range midpoint or a performance pay increase averaging 4.25% for those employees above the range midpoint. Continuing our example, we recognized the Police Officer I group are all recent hires and are paid below the range midpoint.
Our next step in data analysis was to add this amount of 5.78% to the average pay of the Police Officer I group and compare the resulting average pay to the midpoint of the recommended range of grade 34.
If the relationship between these two figures (called a compa-ratio) is .95 or greater, no further action is recommended. The .95 ratio would mean that the average pay of this employee group is in a reasonable competitive position to the new range midpoint, which represents market average pay at the 75th percentile for this job.
In the case of the Police Officer I group, the compa-ratio was .89 of the new range midpoint. To determine the number of dollars that would be needed to adjust the average pay of the group to .95, we calculated the difference between the average pay of the group (after the Town-wide recommended increase was applied) and the average pay at the .95 level, and multiplied this by the number of employees in the group. This figure is shown in the far right column as “Cost of Special Adjustment”.
This process was applied to each job surveyed and shown in the Special Pay Adjustment Report which follows.
SPECIAL CASES
In a very few cases, other data available from the survey was used to identify those jobs where compa-ratios of respondents’ pay ( comparison of their average pay to their range midpoint) indicated that average pay for a job is higher than expected in the majority of survey respondents. An example of this is Building Inspector -Senior.
|
Town of Chapel Hill Pay Survey |
Comparison of Pay |
Comparison of Ranges |
|
Recommended Adjustments |
|||||||
|
Job Title |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 50th %ile |
Average Town Pay to Market Average Pay at the 75th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Range Average Midpoint at the 50th %ile |
Town Range Midpoint to Market Average Range Midpoint at the 75th %ile |
Actions Recommended (GRADE CHANGES) FROM TO |
Number of Positions |
Cost of Special Adjustment |
||||
|
Building Inspector Senior |
1% |
3% |
-7% |
-11% |
35 |
37 |
4 |
|
|
||
The Town range midpoint is 11% lower than the 75th percentile market average range midpoint. When compa-ratios of respondents’ employee groups are examined, it appears that most employees are clustered at or above their range midpoints. This indicates either high starting salaries for experienced employees or a long-term employee group. The Town employee group is also long-term.
If the recommended 2% range increase is applied, the gap between the Town range midpoint to the market average midpoint at the 75th percentile would drop to 9%. However, we decided to recommend adjusting this job by two grades, in recognition of this situation of high average pay among survey respondents. We believe that it is likely that other respondents will also change the grade of this job group in the coming year, and we believe our recommendation will provide adequate scope for continued employee advancement for this job.
These recommended Special Pay Adjustments would further adjust employee pay ( up to a maximum of 10% after Town-wide increases are applied) to a competitive point in the new higher ranges recommended to place the jobs at the 75th percentile of ranges for this work.
The following section contains the detailed listing of all grade changes recommended. Changes are either recommended based on survey data or are recommended for jobs which are determined to bear close internal relationships within the organization and should be at the same level.