Study: Jefferson City municipal government staff pay 10% behind peers

Consultant says seven parameters can shape strategy to improve city pay

The John G. Christy Municipal Building in downtown Jefferson City is pictured in this Dec. 1, 2016 photo.
The John G. Christy Municipal Building in downtown Jefferson City is pictured in this Dec. 1, 2016 photo.

Rebecca G. Crowder has seen more than 100 cities, large and small, in her work as a municipal compensation specialist.

She has been in Jefferson City virtually all week, first to deliver a detailed report Monday on the Job Classification System and Pay Plan Analysis at City Hall, then to meet in groups and one-on-one with the more than 400 employees now in the city workforce. Friday may have been her last day - for a while.

Crowder has become someone important to Jefferson City workers. She has been here to counsel the City Council and executive leadership on how to adjust employee paychecks and benefits.

As president of the Overland Park-based Austin Peters Group Inc., Crowder is in a position to tell good city employees from bad and good from great. Without prompting, she offers that Jefferson City's municipal staff are in the great category and deserve the highest marks possible.

"This whole experience with this city has gone better than I could have imagined," she said Friday. She's been meeting with the city's executive team, department heads and rank-and-file employees for six months. Austin Peters won the $39,000 contract in May, and Crowder and her associates were on the job in June.

Before her presentation to the City Council on Monday, Crowder had distributed questionnaires to every employee with, she figures, more than 90 percent returned. She said she logged more than 120 hours of interviews with city staff, conducted worksite tours throughout town, presided over six employee question-and-answer sessions, followed up with untold numbers of individual employees and met with various employee committees.

All of that before last week's round of almost round-the-clock sessions to explain the details of the so-called pay plan.

So what has Crowder learned and now disseminated to those who call Jefferson City their employer? And what are her recommendations, which the City Council generally embraced Monday night?

Here's a synopsis, presented in the order she established:

No. 1 - Wages are most important to the employees. The levels of priority: wages 31.24 percent, health benefits 22.87 percent, retirement system 20.93 percent, tuition reimbursement 17.92 percent, shift differential 15.58 percent and uniform allowance 11.56 percent.

No. 2 - Peers against which Jefferson City compensation is compared include Blue Springs, Cape Girardeau, Chesterfield, Columbia, Cole County, Florissant, Independence, Joplin, O'Fallon, St. Charles, St. Joseph, St. Peters, University City, Wildwood, state of Missouri and local employers. Consistent with industry methodology, Austin Peters "calculated percentile ranking without saying which city or employer is ahead of behind Jefferson City," Crowder said.

No. 3 - "Move employees' wages to the proposed minimums, with an approximate financial impact of $281,263. Current pay ranges are behind our recommended target by 2.83 percent, after the Nov. 1 pay range adjustment. The target is the 60th percentile, meaning four employers pay more than the city, and six employers pay less. This does not mean employees will receive an additional 2.83 percent adjustment in pay," Crowder said. She explained the ranges move first by the 2.83 percent "to get the ranges only to the 60th percentile of the market."

No. 4 - "Jefferson City is more than 10 percent behind the market in actual pay. It is recommended employee wages be adjusted by a 2 percent market adjustment, an approximate financial impact of $380,871." Crowder said, "If the city paid 1 percent more in wages every year ahead of the peer group, it would take 10 years. The study recommends two percent toward that gap, plus a pay compression adjustment." Compression, she said, "occurs when recent hires are brought in at the same rate of pay as existing employees."

No. 5 - "There is pay compression among employees. It is recommended that a pay compression adjustment be implemented. The approximate financial impact would be $307,734."

No. 6 - "For fringe benefits, consider shifting more health insurance premium costs to employees and adding more vacation and sick leave days." Crowder recommends the city evaluate additional employee acceptance of leave for the sick/vacation benefit.

No. 7 - "Annually move the pay ranges according to a policy or index and adjust the employee pay based on performance." Crowder said, "There are indexes that provide information as to how ranges are moving in the market - not the same as a cost-of-living adjustment."

To reach these recommendations, Crowder identified 128 positions in 18 city departments: city administration; city clerk/finance; court services; human resources; information technology; legal services; fire; planning and zoning; building and code enforcement; public safety animal control; public safety emergency; public safety police; public works - airport; public works - streets and vehicles; public works - administration; public works - transit; public works - wastewater; and parks, recreation and forestry.

In summarizing her experience working with the city over the six months of her study, Crowder complimented the quality of the employees, their positive attitudes and the leadership throughout the departments.

Her praise for the municipal leadership she encountered in the Capital City included Mayor Carrie Tergin, City Administrator Steve Crowell and especially Human Resources Director Gail Strope. Crowder said Strope matched her hour-for-hour and meeting- for-meeting in marching through what could have been a daunting task, discussing jobs and paychecks with more than 400 strangers. She didn't encounter an employee who was disappointed with the results of her analysis, she said. Each employee, Crowder said, seemed to understand he or she had a huge stake in this project and was personally invested in its outcome.

She was impressed with the high level of turnout at her sessions. And the workforce has a high level of confidence in the city, its leadership and the governing body, Crowder added.

The City Council, expressed wide support and satisfaction for Crowder's work Monday. Second Ward Councilman Rick Mihalevich, in fact, encouraged his colleagues to accept her recommendations when the study hits the council agenda on Monday. He included in his endorsement a view that a $575,000 budget reserve be distributed to employees as soon as possible, perhaps even in time for Christmas shopping.