Mercer Study was a mistake
The decision by City Council last year to commission the Mercer Group’s study of City employees’ compensation and pension benefits was ill-advised. City employees already knew they were underpaid — now they have it in black and white, from a professional consultant.
Yesterday’s workshop on the Mercer Study, which was widely attended by City employees, illustrated the bad position in which the City Council has now been placed. Upset employees, who have not had raises in several years, have now been told that they are paid, on average, 11% or (more) less than comparable employees of other governments — all while the Council struggles with an already tight budget.
Worse, the Mercer Study may have understated the situation. In the case of police officers, the study uses a salary midpoint of $43,311, and says it should have about 7½ years on average for a Pensacola Police Department officer to reach that point. However, according to information provided by the Fraternal Order of Police, the actual salary of a 7-year PPD officer is $35,297.60. The FOP’s calculations show that by taking that into account, PPD salaries could be as low as 21.27% below market average.
At yesterday’s workshop, Councilman Sam Hall compared Council’s commission of the study to a football team punting the ball. He’s right — the study merely delayed this inevitable conversation — but beyond that, Council’s dug themselves a big hole. Morale among City employees is already at an all-time low due to the uncertainty surrounding the City’s transition to a Mayor-Council. This study has codified what the employees already knew, and places the City Council in a position where they must address the employees’ concerns.
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Derek,
The study was also misleading in several other areas.
1- The Fire dept leave is highly competitive,true. Why, they did not put in the study that the Fire only gets 2 pd holidays and the other empplyees get 9. The Fire gets additional leave instead of additional pd holidays.
2- Deferred comp, the city contributed to all employees deferred comp, except Fire.
3- Social security replacement- all city employees get the replacement plan, except Fire.
Also, why not ask staff the question. If you are doing a pay and benefit study, why did you not include a comparison on the retirement benefit the employee gets along with the spousal benefit?
Granite Head:
Very good points, all of which I am aware of. Was trying not to bog this piece down with too much data though. I’ll do a followup soon on some of those issues.
Was the decision to get the Mercer study unanimous?
In this new era of announced votes for and against items Derek, what was the for and against on obtaining the Mercer study?
I think we know what the answer is…
DeWeese:
The decision to commission the study ultimately passed 8-2, with Council members DeWeese and Wu dissenting.
That was a reversal, at a regular Council meeting, of a committee vote which failed 4-6.
If you wanted to know the original 4-6 committee vote, it was:
For: Council members Mack, Cannada-Wynn, Johnson, and Townsend
Against: Council members DeWeese, Wu, Pratt, Jerralds, Hall, and Mayor Wiggins
Council members Hall, Jerralds, Pratt, and Mayor Wiggins changed their minds between the committee meeting and the regular Council meeting.
Who was pushing for the study?
Councilwoman Mack, primarily.
Did the study take into account private sector pay in Pensacola or was that deemed to be irrelevant?
Councilwoman Mack wanted it to; however, the consultant, Mercer Group, said it was not feasible for two reasons. Firstly, that private companies’ HR departments are not usually forthcoming with the kind of data they would need to make comparisons; and secondly that many positions simply don’t have comparable counterparts in the private sector, like firefighters, for example.
The study used data from 14 other governments, mostly in Florida.
I get the impression that the Mercer study only looked at full-time employee compensation. If that is the case, the study can’t present the full story. I’ve become aware years ago of the fact that the City has been and still is using part-time employees doing full-time work (working at least 35 hours a week), thereby skimping on benefits. More recently I hear the City has been using staffing agencies such as Landrum to fill in positions with part-time workers, which is problematic in so many different ways. Low pay and benefits, reliance on temps who are either demoralized or are looking for any opportunity to move into a better job, etc., beget low morale, lack of dedication, and ultimately reduced overall competence and productivity. This is a story that I haven’t seen reported anywhere in the local media.
So? The whole workforce in America is underpaid, ‘cept for the corporate management sector. Wages have lagged behind the cost of living for 30 years. The city hasn’t established a local minimum wage, they haven’t put workers’ wages as a top priority when recruiting new business…no, this area has always been promoted on the very subject here, low wages.
Nothing new here. itsmehoney is right. They brag about low wages in Pensacola.
If only the private sector had a Mercer study that could twist the arm of our bosses publicly to get us a raise.
Knowing that city salaries are in line or more than the private sector here for same type job seems significant.
Where are you going to find police and firefighters in the private sector?
Granitehead’s comment #3 was incorrect. For the last three years, all new employees have gone into FRS where they do pay SS tax.
I’m not sure what itsmehoney is referring to as a local minimum wage. Minimum wage for all City positions is $9.00/hour. Councilman Jeralds pushed that through several years ago.
anon — not true. There are many employees working for the city who make less than $9 an hour.
The City got exactly what they paid for. The presentation by the individual from the Mercer Group was a joke. If you are going to do a study on something do it correctly or not at all. Saying Gulf Power wouldn’t respond and that being the only non government company selected is nonsense. There are a number of private companies in Pensacola that could have been surveyed. A comparision of total wages and benefits would be useful. I am still of the opinion that government in Pensacola have a much better deal than workers in the private sector.
Secondly I don’t feel as most speakers understood the report, that includes council members.
As the rep from Mercer said, many positions simply don’t have comparable counterparts in the private sector, like firefighters and police, for example.
I wasn’t necessarly referring to firefiters and police how about the admin, parks and sanitation.
It’s not just police officers & firefighters that private sector employers don’t employ. How about those who oversee & operate the gas company, or supervise the airport, or manage the housing department, etc, etc. You can’t compare most government services to private sector business. If I don’t like the restaurant, grocery store, clothing store, etc. that I go to, there are lots of others that I can choose from. Who else do I turn to for police, fire, parks, gas, housing, etc. services? I guess I could move to the county & have really substandard services, but that’s not why I choose to live in the city. I want city employees to be paid a livable wage. If we pay employees what they are worth, won’t they spend that money in local businesses, stimulate the economy & have more loyalty to their employer (the citizens of Pensacola)?
Anon, new city employees in FRS get a pension and Social security. Fire gets neither. I was commenting on the study, i don’t think there was a comparisom with FRS employees.
Granite Head — fire department employees do get a pension. They don’t contribute to social security but since their schedules are 24 on & 48 off, most of them have other jobs that do provide social security benefits.
My father is a retired fire fighter and worked side jobs here and there to help the family. When he went to get social security a couple years ago, he was informed since you have a pension, your benefits are half. Here he paid for all his quarters and only gets %50.
James, Fire only gets one benefit, the others get a pension, deferred comp and social security replacement.
Granite Head — yes, but the city put all new general employees (and some current employees) in FRS 2 1/2 years ago. Would you be willing to switch to FRS?
I’d love to switch to FRS. I’m paying 11 percent of my salary for benefits that are the same or less in most cases to FRS. Better idea….let me .05 percent like the cops and I’ll be happy.
How about the city paying their employees a fair wage. They sit in that high rise building that should have been sold to a realtor after Ivan and say “let them eat cake” while everyone else struggles. If they can afford to build stadiums and buy an education for city residents kids certainly they can bring us up to the average.
I believe it was Mayor Fogg who said he would not consider any offers for city hall because the employees liked working in that location.