City worker salaries significantly below market
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Most people probably think they are underpaid at work. But in the case of Key West city employees, it is unquestionably true, according to a salary survey conducted by a government performance measurement consultant.
And not only are the city’s workers underpaid, according to Nancy Berkley, a project manager at Evergreen Solutions, the Tallahassee-based company that conducted the salary survey, two-thirds of the Key West’s 460 workers are significantly underpaid as compared to comparable salary ranges at other public sector entities.
Berkley presented the final report to city commissioners at their July 2 meeting, walking them through data that assessed salary competitiveness in Key West City government as compared with current market conditions. Key West has multiple pay plans in place for different jobs, and each pay plan has a salary range going from low to high, depending on seniority and job responsibility. Berkley said that the survey took the halfway mark of each salary range and found that 62.8 percent of city workers have salaries below that midpoint.
“This is quite a significant amount, I would say, of employees with salaries below the midpoint. Midpoint is typically considered market,” Berkeley said, referring to average market rates for salaries at comparable public sector employers. “Certainly you would want most of your salaries closer to the midpoint.”
The survey compared Key West government worker salaries with 13 public sector “peers” and looked at 40 benchmark classifications. The final report indicated that four Key West government positions were considerably below the salary norm. Specifically, 56 percent of executive assistants in Key West were below the market rate midpoint, auditors were 46 percent below, administrative assistants were 42 percent below, and certified mechanics were 40 percent below.
“Anything that probably is at least 20 percent below market, I would generally say is significant. Forty [percent] certainly is,” Berkley said.
The timing of the survey final report may be advantageous for city workers hoping for a raise this year. Budget deliberations for the 2015 fiscal year are taking place this summer, giving department heads the opportunity to request higher budgets that could include raises. However, those requests have to be approved by commissioners. Based on at least two commissioners’ response to the survey results at the July 2 meeting, higher salaries may receive a favorable welcome.
“We have 251 employees that are not at minimum [salary ranges]. That’s out of a total labor force of 460. So we have close to half our labor force not even at a minimum level… This is very serious in my eyes, very, very serious,” said Commissioner Teri Johnston.
Commissioner Jimmy Weekley said he wouldn’t be surprised if Key West city employees jump ship to higher paying jobs at other government entities in the region, such as Monroe County.
“I think this is pretty eye-opening as to where we are in paying our salaries to our employees. I think as we go into the budget year, this is something we’re really going to have to take a really hard look at in order to maintain the employees we have,” he said.
The reason behind the salary deficiencies, according to the survey report, can be traced to the state legislature mandate in 2007 that all Florida municipalities roll back property tax rates by three percent to give property owners a break. With hindsight being 20/20, the roll back could not have come at a worse time for Key West. The move cost the city $1 million a year in lost tax revenue starting in FY 2008. Making up that shortfall required budget reductions and department reorganizations, resulting in 16 positions being eliminated in FY 2008. That was followed in FY 2009 by 11 more positions being eliminated and another 11 the following fiscal year.
“In addition to the legislatively mandated property tax reductions, other negative changes in the national economy and the local economy also reduced property tax collections because the price of real estate sales dropped tremendously when the real estate market collapsed,” the survey final report reads. “Furthermore, the slumping national and local economy also reduced the number of tourists coming to the City by car and cruise ship during 2007 and 2008, which in turn lowered the City’s revenues in those years that were obtained via parking meter fees and tickets, and because fewer cruise ships in the port caused a significant reduction in port fees paid received by the City.”
The one-two-three punch has created a financial shortfall Key West has been struggling to make up ever since. And one of the largest portions of the approximately $60 million city budget is employee salaries.
Berkley outlined two options Key West could take to help bring its employees up to salary parity. One would bring all 128 employees currently paid less than the market minimum salary up to the bottom of their pay range. That would cost taxpayers almost $657,000.
The second option would be to fully implement a pay plan to bring all city workers, including fire and police personnel – who, the report said, are paid closer to the market average than general and executive city workers – up to their salary midpoint. That cost would be just under $5.6 million. The report recommended spreading that cost over five years, which would require an additional $792,000 a year in salary expenditures.
“It’s in your hands,” Berkley told the commissioners.
“It’s very disconcerting information,” Commissioner Johnston replied.
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That’s because they are spending monies paying city manager severance pay packages and retirement and working out their bubba deals……surely we should raise taxes to give the elected officials more too!
Deplorable! Pathetic! Unfair! Rectify immediately. No one living in
K.W. should be making under the market rate, what with our cost of living so much higher than elsewhere.
HOWEVER, rather than an across-the-board upgrade, I would love instead to see merit raises, tied to improvement in productivity for those workers who need to improve.. How ’bout some time studies or efficiency studies? In 20 years here I have all too often seen huge time sinks like people doing little or nothing, or two people on a 1-person-task, or even 1 person with 2 watching over the shoulders of the 1 working – this in spite of the fact that the City eliminated 58 of 518 jobs in 08-,-09, and ’10.
AND, BELIEVE ME IT’S JUST AS BAD, IF NOT WORSE, IN THE BLUE COLLAR SECTION. jUST ASK THE EMPLOYEES THEMELVES IF THEY FEEL THEIR CO-WOKERS ARE ALL AS PRODUCTIVE AND EFFICIENT AS THEY ARE THEMSELVES.