7. Discussion on pay equity report
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: October 3, 2018
To: City Council
From: Neil Soltis, Administrator
Re: Pay Equity report
I’ve followed up with the State Pay Equity Coordinator at Minnesota Management and Budget
regarding the report. That report was due by September 30, 2018 but could be extended upon
submitted a request for reconsideration. I have requested an extension until October 31, 2018
which cannot be further extended. That request has been granted.
The pay equity report is a historical report based on the compensation and pay ranges at the end of
2017, the recommendation is to submit the report using the points and step scale that were
approved by the Council in 2013. The report has been prepared and submitted using the job point
values that were in effect when the step plan as approved with the current pay ranges in the step
plan and the labor agreement with Local 49. The response from the State Pay Equity Coordinator to
the preliminary submission is as follows:
“Based on the information I am looking at you are technically in compliance however the
points should be proportionate to salaries and with a 2 point difference between the
maintenance worker and the deputy clerk this can be a potential inequity because we would
expect their salaries to be similar as you mentioned.”
We also discussed the relationship between the point value for a position and the steps within the
pay range. The example used for the purpose of the discussion was whether a job with 220 point
need to be paid 10% more than a job with 200 points. There does not need to be a direct
correlation between these two factors but the relationship needs to be reasonably proportionate.
As noted at the work session the source of the inequity relates to the step schedule in the
compensation plan where the Deputy Clerk and the Maintenance Workers had the roughly the
same point values assigned to their positions (192 and 194 respectively). The point values for these
positions have not changed from the reports files for 2009, 2011, and 2014. In 2013 the pay range
for both of these positions was from $19.82 to $24.78 per hour. The pay range for the Deputy Clerk
has not changed since 2013 while the pay range for the Maintenance Workers in 2017 was $21.03
to $25.39 per hour.
I am recommending that the pay range for the Deputy Clerk position be increased from the current
to the same range that is provided in the Labor Agreement with the Maintenance Workers. The
minimum and maximum hourly rates in the labor agreement which would spread equally between
the 11 steps that are in the City’s step schedule. While this would correct the potential inequity,
there is further potential inequities that could result with the two position with lower point totals
based on the relationship of points and compensation not being reasonably proportionate.
In assigning points to the positions, the initial point assignment for the City was done by the City
Attorney for the 2009 report/ The job points for the Deputy Clerk, Maintenance Worker, and
Administrator have not changed since that time. In speaking with the Coordinator, this task can be
done in-house but is typically performed by a consultant. I have contacted two consultants who
perform these services to get an idea of the cost and timing for performing this task and will
present these for consideration for the work to be performed in 2018.