The city of Columbus is seeking an update to its 2017 salary study.
The city’s Board of Works has approved three contracts with Total Rewards Solutions totaling close to $76,000.
“Four years ago now, I think, we worked with Total Reward Solutions to do a base compensation study for all city employees,” said City Director of Finance, Operations and Risk Jamie Brinegar. “It was the first one that had been undertaken and then implemented since at least 1991.”
The city engaged the company in 2017 and received results in 2018.
Brinegar said that the city’s consultant recommended that the study be updated every three years. However, the city took three years to implement the study, so the update is coming in years four and five.
The board approved the following contracts with Total Reward Solutions, as requested by Brinegar:
Civil city positions (includes 55 unique full-time positions, seven unique part-time and about 180 employees) — $44,500
Public safety officers (includes 20 unique full-time, one unique part-time and about 190 employees) — $15,000
Parks and recreation employees (includes 18 unique full-time, 11 unique part-time and about 200 employees) — $16,300
The city recently finished implementing the previous salary study results by moving city council pay to the midpoint of its range. According to Brinegar, the 2022 budget includes this increase, which raises each member’s salary from $8,301 to $15,079.
“The council, each year between 2018 and today, had only provided a COLA for themselves, determining that they wanted to make sure that all employee positions were able to be budgeted to midpoint prior to the council moving to midpoint,” he said at an earlier meeting.
