Study recommends $1M salary bump for county
In an effort to attract and retain quality employees in this highly competitive environment, Grimes County commissioners contracted with HR Compensation Consultants, LLC (HRCC) this past March for an in-depth classification and compensation study. At a Workshop Meeting, Friday, July 14, they received the results of the study and the proposed salary adjustments total $1.06 million.
HRCC Project Manager and Lead Compensation Consultant Katie Busch is no stranger to Grimes County. In 2022, her company provided the same service to the City of Navasota which implemented its recommended adjustments resulting in salary increases totaling $995,000.
Three step implementation
The Grimes County study identified 89 employees who are underpaid. According to Busch, implementation would entail bringing all staff up to the new pay range minimum, then applying an equity adjustment based on time in the position followed by a 4% cost of living adjustment (COLA) based on inflation. For employees with 10 or more years of employment whose salary is capped at the maximum, their hourly longevity pay will be added last.
Compensation data was solicited from a few private sector companies but primarily focused on other government employers such as the cities of Bryan, College Station, Huntsville, Navasota, Todd Mission and Tomball. Counties surveyed included Brazos, Madison, Montgomery, Walker, Waller and Washington. The State of Texas was also included.
Busch said, “You’re not going to be the highest but you’re certainly not going to be the lowest with this proposed structure.”
She continued, “One of the things that we have to keep in mind when we look at the labor market is we’re balancing all these different elements. We’ve got the internal equity so we have the internal relationship of order and positions. No. 2, we have the labor market and how competitive can we get in establishing proposed pay ranges. We have to, or course, be fiscally responsible so we want to not create pay ranges that are too wide or too narrow. We want to make sure that minimum pay is going to help you to recruit, and the midpoint and the maximum will help you retain quality staff over time.”
Elected officials included County Judge Joe Fauth said, “I have asked Talitta (Coleman, Human Resources Director) to take the TAC (Texas Association of Counties) salary survey data and put it in the same format as what we have been looking at with what HRCC has done with all the other employees.”
Coleman provided commissioners with a report listing all elected officials, current pay and the proposed minimum, midpoint and maximum.
Fauth said, “Just to be clear, the 4% COLA for elected officials is included in the $1.06 million.”
Coleman said the proposed salaries of the constables and the county attorney will be reevaluated. The constable data was incomplete as it lacked input from Washington County. Fauth commented that County Attorney Jon C. Fultz waives a portion of his salary but the full amount needs to be factored in the budget for his successor.
According to Fauth, a second workshop will be scheduled after the auditors, payroll and HR have “confirmed the data and we have a fixed number.”
Meetings may be viewed in their entirety at https:// grimescountytx.granicus. com.