Please, when considering subject item [about a pay raise study], ensure you control which of the various municipalities and counties will be used in “comparison” of salaries.
Peachtree City screwed up big time in allowing the contractor who did their study to use clear higher cost of living areas in determining pay under the guise that’s where the PTC labor market came from.
PTC was already “relatively” the best paid (generally speaking in the various job areas (with of course occasional exceptions) in the surrounding area. The labor market where 84 percent of the employees of PTC come from is PTC, Newnan and Fayetteville.
To allow a pay study to use unweighted pay scales with market areas clearly above the local area was a disservice and has caused extreme discontent within the community.
Also, before executing any pay raise that may be forthcoming, you must identify how to pay for any change in the budget. You have already set a budget for this fiscal year. If changes are to be made you must identify how to keep the budget balanced. Using reserves is NOT a solution!
Before executing any pay raise, ask yourself are you losing so many employees each month that you have a problem. Remember, the average departure rate for full-time employees is 15 percent per year across the country. You must know ahead of time how Fayette County compares.
If you have about 15 percent or lower employee departures per year, you don’t have a salary problem and therefore don’t need raises.
Before executing any pay raise that may be forthcoming, you must understand that the lowest paid positions are always the hardest to fill. Don’t be mislead by your staff when information is brought to you indicating the inability to fill a position for x amount of time. It will be self-serving data.
The lowest paid positions are always the hardest to fill and sometimes go unfilled. Just know that any position at or above the mean salary will have plenty of quality applicants. You’ve hired an human resource department to do the hard work of filling all positions That’s what they get paid for.
Do you believe the economy has recovered? According to the contractor used in PTC, it has! Astonishing! This statement is documented on video at PTC council’s salary workshop on Sept. 16. When I see “help wanted” signs on a majority of local businesses’ windows as I drive by, then I’ll know the economy is back. Has the county’s digest fair market value recovered? Of course not.
The resulting Peachtree City salary increases voted in on Oct 2 resulted in apparent “make up raises” for the previous five years. This was an outrage.
The additional 2-6 percent raises (arbitrarily picked) had nothing to do with “salary compression” in PTC. Apparently government employees come first and the citizens (read voters) and hardworking private employees come second. Please remember, you work first for the citizens, not the government employees.
Concerned with potential higher county taxes because of “nice guy bleeding heart” politicians, citizen of Fayette County,
Eric Imker
Peachtree City, Ga.
[From County Administrator Rapson:]Eric, thanks for taking the time to express your concerns but the county’s proposed pay comp and classification study is significantly different than the recent Peachtree City study.
We have ensured the municipalities and counties used in comparison of salaries are rational – please see the jurisdictions we are proposing to use:
Jurisdictions to be used in comparison:
Counties — Henry, Coweta and Spalding. Cities: Tyrone, Fayetteville, Newnan and Griffin. (Peachtree City will be excluded.)
The reason for conducting such a review now is to ensure that the FY2016 Budget will incorporate any dollars required – please see the timeline for the review on page 10 of the attached agenda.
We are not proposing a wholesale revision of the county’s pay and classification system – no new salary scale, no across the board pay raises, no salary compression analysis or equity adjustments for longevity.
It’s simply a “best practice” upgrade of the existing 2007 pay and classification system. UGA via the Carl Vinson Institute of Government has provided continuous updates to this plan for the past seven years, including any new positions, department reorganizations, position upgrades and the recent water system review.
We anticipate recommended changes would be isolated to the lowest pay classifications or to the starting minimum salary of a classification – both of which would not impact the majority of the workforce.
I have included the agenda package write-up for your review.
Call me with any questions.
Steven Rapson
County Administrator
Fayette County, Ga.
