Study: Hundreds of Beaufort County employees likely underpaid; $2M set aside

Hundreds of Beaufort County government employees could soon be eligible for a raise.

Administration leaders recently presented preliminary findings of a salary and compensation study that indicate nearly half of the roughly 850 public employees surveyed are underpaid.

More than 1,100 people work for the county, making it one of the largest local employers.

The study, which will soon be presented in full to the Beaufort County Council by consulting firm Gallagher Benefits Services, establishes a pay scale based on market conditions and responsibility levels for each job type and provides recommendations for how to bump salaries to the appropriate range.

“A number of our employees will receive a (salary) change as a result of what is being proposed” by the study, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber said. “... The adjustments range from a couple of hundred dollars a year to several thousand dollars per year.”

The study indicates that, since the county’s compensation structure was last amended 14 years ago, there has been quite a bit of “compression” between long-time employees and new hires, he said.

That means a new hire earns a salary similar to someone with years of experience.

The county has done a good job with new hires “bringing them in at (pay) levels that are competitive with the (overall job) market,” but long-time employees have often gone without raises commensurate with their experience and performance, Gruber said.

“We want to create some separation between employees and avoid that compression,” he said.

Creating that separation won’t come cheap.

The county has $2 million budgeted this fiscal year to implement the findings of the salary study.

County administrator Gary Kubic estimates that sum is enough to bump about 70 percent of the underpaid employees up to the midpoint of their appropriate salary range.

Another $500,000 would likely be necessary to give raises to all employees currently paid below the salary level determined for their job type.

The study’s recommendations also “essentially provide a career track for employees” that will give them an idea about what their pay will likely look like from the day they are hired to the day they retire so long as performance standards are met, Gruber said.

In the past, raises have been mostly based on cost-of-living increases. If the study’s recommendations are implemented, annual performance reviews would be used to guide employees forward within the established salary ranges.

If standards aren’t met, “you wont receive those (pay) increases … and could potentially be let go from the county,” Gruber said.

In addition to making raises performance-based, the study recommends consolidating job categories and types to make it easier to compare employees and salaries.

There are about 280 different job positions and titles within the county, Gruber said.

“There is no reason for an organization of our size to have that many different positions,” he said.

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Study: Hundreds of Beaufort County employees likely underpaid; $2M set aside."