Erin council has approved an updated salary grid for non-union members.
Marianne Love, senior consultant with Gallagher Benefit Services, presented the final report of the non-union compensation review to council on April 5 and council received hourly rates on April 19.
The hourly rate ranges from $23.39 to $56.44 per hour in step one of the 12 pay bands. By step five municipal employees are earning between $27.36 to $66.03 per hour.
Love explained that while the town adjusts pay grid annually, it hadn’t completed a pay equity review since 2011 and had not conducted a comprehensive market review since 2004.
“Generally the town is competitive to the defined pay market,” said Love, who was asked to look at the compensation structure, pay equity compliance and market competitiveness.
The town uses 12 pay bands each with a five-step grid for their salary structure. Love explained there were only three salary grades that are recommended for adjustment.
She also looked at 33 positions within the town that were new or changed since the last pay equity review in 2011.
“There were four jobs, four female job classes that were pay equity sensitive; what I mean by that is they need to be placed in the proper band and they need to be provided with the new male comparator job rate, and we made sure that’s happened,” said Love.
Another recommendation was to move the target to the 60th percentile of the market comparison, rather than the current 50th percentile. This would allow the town to help with employee retention, she explained.
Town is ‘competitive’
In Love’s report Erin was compared to eight other municipalities, the largest being Centre Wellington and the smallest being Shelburne.
With an increase to the 60th percentile, Erin would be 2.2 per cent above average for annual salaried jobs and 0.4% below average for hourly job rates.
“If we are comparing annual salaries, the town is competitive when I’m looking at the 60th percentile placement,” said Love.
She said the next steps are to communicate to employees the changes in the grid and prepare an amended equity plan.
Councillor John Brennan said he wants to remind residents, “Any financial implications of this are already accounted for, more than accounted for, in the budget.”
