“We want to better understand our place, if you will, in the marketplace when it comes to compensation for non-contract employee and also benefits for all employees…,” Welch said. “What we want to do is we want to maintain, we want to attract and retain quality professionals.”
The township employs 227 full-time employees but 168 are under union contracts. There are 59 full-time non-contract staffers and the rest are non-contract part-timers. Township Spokeswoman Barb Wilson said Strategic Employee Benefit Services performed the last compensation study in 2009, and the trustees approved increasing the maximum pay ranges based on that study.
The township instituted pay-for-performance in 2006, and last year the trustees approved a pool of three percent for raises. No one was allowed more than a four percent lump-sum raise.
“In 2015, performance merit increases were awarded to non-contract employees as a lump sum rather than a percentage increase to salary,” Wilson said. “This also speaks to West Chester’s commitment to remain fiscally responsible. Rather than percentage increases to base wages which continue to compound over time, exceptional performance was rewarded with a lump-sum payment.”
The county hired a salary consultant for the first time in 2010 — for just under $100,000 — an issue that caused much angst among the three commissioners. The county officially instituted its pay-for-performance program for non-union workers under the commissioners umbrella in 2014.
Under the old regime — pre-recession wage freeze — employees automatically got a three percent step increase, a three percent across-the board-increase, another four percent if they were promoted — Dixon says many people were — and an additional 3 percent was tacked on after they made it past the probationary period.
“Some of those were 13 percent increases, cost-wise, it was just going through the roof …,” Dixon said previously. “It was nothing to give somebody a $10,000 raise.”
The survey results have been implemented in fits and starts. The consultants recommended 13 pay ranges — the county used to have 100 ranges — and some employees were "red-lined" for exceeding the range for their job classification and 18 employees were below the range. Only a handful of employees had their wages cut.
Welch said since they have had studies in the past he doesn’t expect to find anyone is grossly over or under paid. But if they do find people whose paychecks are fatter than the market suggests he would consider redlining.
“It would be a huge surprise to find a huge surprise,” Welch said.
About the Author