6. SR 04-25-1995ITEM 6.
of
River
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Comparable Worth Committee, Sandra
Thackeray, Lori Johnson, Tom Zerwas,
and Phi Hals
DATE: April 25, 1995
SUBJECT: City of Elk River Employee Pay Plan
INTRODUCTION
The city council discussed the pay plan that was proposed by the Comparable
Worth Committee (CWC) at the April 10, 1995, City Council meeting. At this
meeting the council voted to accept the recommendations of the CWC for the
position title changes and the point rankings. The council, however, took no
• action on the proposed pay plan.
BACKGROUND
Following discussion of the proposed pay plan, the council suggested that
consideration be given to adopting the proposed 12 step pay plan with the
stipulation that employees move from one step to the next every other year.
The CWC reviewed the ramifications of a pay plan in which employees would
move one step every other year. The committee also received employee
feedback on this suggestion. The CWC felt it was important to relay the
general feeling of the committee and the employees regarding this type of pay
plan to the council.
The CWC felt that the every-other-year 12 step plan would be unfair for
employees; especially those employees who are closer to the beginning or
middle of the pay plan. It could presumably take an employee 24 years to
reach the top of the pay plan. Feedback from employees regarding this type
of pay plan was very negative. So negative, in fact, that there have been
rumors of organizing a union, and several employees are considering other
• employment opportunities. It is the intent of the CWC to inform the council
13065 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 490 • Elk River, MN 55330 • (612) 441-7420 • Fax: (612) 441-7425
of this information. However, on the other hand, the committee does not
want the council to view this as any type of threat, but merely a passing on of
general feelings of some city employees.
RECOMMENDATION
The following are recommendations that the CWC requests the council to
consider:
• Adoption of the 12 step pay plan as originally presented by the
CWC; or
• Adoption of the 12 step pay plan with step increases being given
in July and cost-of-living increases being given in January
If the council does not accept either of the above recommendations, the CWC
requests more time to come up with other alternatives for council
consideration.
s: \council\cwmemo. doc
C
of
Item 6.
River MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor & City Council
FROM: Pat Klaers, City Administrator
DATE: April 25, 1995 ~~
SUBJECT: Comparable Worth
Attached for your review is a memo from the Comparable Worth Committee.
This memo offers some comments and some concerns from the committee on
the pay plan that was discussed by the City Council on 4/10/95. I concur with
the comments and recommendations from the committee. I believe that a 24
year pay plan simply takes too long for an employee to reach the top.
The pay plan offered for discussion by the Committee was believed to be
consistent with the desires of the City Council to pay appropriate wages for
the top management employees and for the city to attract and retain good,
• quality workers. The proposed pay plan was modeled after the Sherburne
County pay plan.
•
The proposed pay plan offers more than five steps so that employees can
receive more than just a COLA after five years of employment. This was
believed to be consistent with City Council goals. The 10 step plan was
necessary to start employees at entry level market rates, pay employees
appropriately when they are at the top of the range, and still be in
compliance with State law. If the proposed 10/12 step pay plan remains
competitive to similar communities, and if the City Council goals remain the
same for the next few years, I don't believe that we would see any major
changes in the city pay plan for a number of years. However, any
Comparable Worth plan needs at least annual updates and adjustment and,
in a growing City like Elk River, more than annual adjustments may be
needed.
A point that should not be forgotten is that the City Council does not have to
change its existing pay plan. I believe that we can meet the state law
requirements by simply placing our employees into the existing pay plan
based on their point rankings. (If we want to pay closer to the metro average
for our sized community, we could add 2 steps and have a 7 step plan.) The
council should note that ever since our pay plan was adopted, we always had
13065 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 490 • Elk River, MN 55330 • (612) 441-7420 • Fax: (612) 441-7425
some employees who have received step and COLA increases. Step and COLA
• increases also happen in most county governments and in school districts.
If the City Council would like more time to think about the pay options, it is
requested that they provide input to the committee so that it can respond
with another proposal. There are other options that can be looked at, but we
need a majority of the council to be in agreement on the direction that the
pay plan should take while having the City still meet the requirements of
State law.
council:cmpwrth
•