Sparta conducting a citywide salary study to evaluate its pay structure and benefits package following an increase in employee turnover.
City Administrator Tonya Tindle said the initiative aims to ensure the city remains competitive with private and public employers in the surrounding region. Tindle said the evaluation focuses on improving the recruitment of new staff while retaining current personnel.
“Everybody wanted to work for the city because of the benefits,” Tindle said. “They might take a little bit less pay because their benefits were astronomical; they were so good. Now, the younger generation that are taking a lot of these jobs that people are retiring from, they don’t necessarily care about the benefits.”
Tindle said the process helps the city move beyond simple annual adjustments based on the consumer price index to create consistent pay ranges.
Tindle said a consultant is currently benchmarking Sparta against approximately 15 different cities. Tindle said the research will also incorporate salary data from neighboring White, Putnam, DeKalb, and Cumberland counties.
“You need to make sure that the job categories are very specified, they’re classified correctly, doing the work that is actually reflective of that position,” Tindle said. “And we need to make sure that in doing so that we provide good competitive recruitment, retention, but overall morale for the employees, too.”
Tindle said the city must balance the immediate salary demands of younger workers with the long-term retirement and health benefits valued by veteran employees. Tindle said the study will also address potential pay compression where different job categories might overlap over time.
“So it’s a balancing act for sure,” Tindle said.
Tindle said the city hired an outside professional firm with over 30 years of experience across three states to conduct the research. Tindle said the board will review three different scenarios and options for the pay scale when the final results are presented in December.
“It’s a tedious thing, but I’m glad somebody outside the city is doing it,” Tindle said. “They really know all the ins and outs, which is something that somebody just sitting behind a desk like I do all day long would not be able to tell.”
Tindle said the board will determine whether to implement the recommendations through a budget amendment in January or wait until the new fiscal year begins on July 1.