1/23/2020 - Meeting MinutesPage 1 of 2
Minutes Meeting
Citizens’ Compensation Advisory Committee
January 23, 2020
Members Present: Frances Hume
Jeff Worthington
Mike Terry
Jeff Herring
Brandon Dew
Ray Schelbe
Marlene Sloan
Members Excused:
Staff Present: David Salazar, City Compensation Administrator
Guests: Scot Baskett, Firefighters Local 81
Val Thometz, Firefighters Local 81
Ben Luedtke, City Council Staff
Lisa Duckworth, HR Business Partner
A recording of these proceedings is on file and available by request from the SLC- HR Department.
Meeting Open & Welcome: Chair Frances Hume welcomed everyone and established a (full) quorum of
members was present.
Review and adopt January 9, 2020 meeting minutes: After noting a few minor corrections, including
misspelling of a member name, a motion to approve the minutes was introduced by Mike Terry and seconded by
Jeff Worthington. The vote to approve the minutes was unanimous by all members present.
Public Comment: (none received)
Report and update on status of special U.S. cities AFSCME survey by Mercer: David Salazar updated
members on progress of the special survey being conducted by Mercer. He stated Mercer’s survey team had
recently conducted a meeting to review preliminary results of the survey with the AFSCME board, including the
data, results, and report Mercer is scheduled to present to the committee on February 6, 2020. Although no
significant questions or issues with the report were raised, AFSCME will be provided additional time to review the
full report more closely and return for a second-review meeting with Mercer to address any outstanding questions
or requested edits to the report before it is delivered to the Committee.
In addition, David clarified the city’s response to the survey was first presented to the AFSCME board to preview
before it was sent on to Mercer. No issues or concerns were raised, so the city’s response including matching pay
range, actual median pay, and number of incumbents per job was sent on to Mercer for inclusion in their analysis
and report.
Report on preliminary results of local area market data analysis for annual benchmark review: Before
introducing preliminary results and format of the 2019-20 local area market pay comparison, David demonstrated
how Payfactors aggregates and assimilates the various local area market surveys for analysis. For not only the
benefit of new members, but the committee as a whole he described the main sources of data used to compare
the city’s pay rate to market, including Western Management Group’s Salt Lake Area Compensation survey,
Wasatch Compensation Group, Economic Research Institute (ERI), and Payfactors. All data, including those from
national surveys, are localized (or, normalized) to Salt Lake City.
In addition to uploading results and data from the various third-party surveys, Payfactors includes the job and pay
information for all the city’s employees. To further demonstrate how Payfactors is utilized, David presented
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members with a display showing how Payfactors was used to price for an Accountant. He noted considerable
time has been saved since relying on Payfactors to conduct the city’s market pay analysis.
In addition to demonstrating how different surveys can be incorporated into each job pricing, David explained how
Payfactors allows for data to be adjusted and weighted differently, if necessary.
In addition to conveying how employee base pay compares to the local area market, David presented the
committee with a proposed format to also demonstrates how the city’s “additional economic value of benefits”
factors competitively with base pay, as shown in the following examples discussed with members. David
explained the “additional economic value of benefits” figures are the same values obtained from NFP’s benefit
and compensation analysis presented to the committee in their January 9, 2020 meeting.
David suggested this proposed format would better enable the committee to address specific questions raised by
the city council’s 2/7/2019 letter to the committee.
Jeff Worthington asked if a top rate pay comparison for union-covered jobs could be added to this table.
In addition to pointing out the new comparison is not based on “total compensation,” Frances expressed
appreciation and support for providing city leaders with a different, more targeted perspective on how the city
ranks competitively compared to market. Brandon Dew agreed the added information is good for city leaders to
see. In addition to providing pay information, Jeff Worthington suggested, and other members agreed, providing
retention and turnover information to city leaders is also valuable.
Jeff Worthington noted concern for the steady loss of the prevailing wage among Utah workers over time.
David committed to continuing work on the local area market pay analysis for review by the committee in a future
committee meeting.
Initial discussion on topics and possible recommendations to be included in 2020 annual report: Members
requested information and updates to address sections and committee recommendations to be included in the
next annual report, including but not limited to-- the latest estimate for Salt Lake County’s living wage; pay equity;
2019 benefits study conducted by NFP; WorldatWork salary budget forecast; updated recruitment, turnover and
statistics; response to the 2/7/19 city council letter.
Confirmed meeting dates:
- February 6 & 20, 2020, 3:30-5:30 PM;
- (as needed) May 14, 2020, 4:00-5:00 PM;
- October 8, 2020, 4:00-5:00 PM.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:45pm.
Minutes approved at February 20, 2020 meeting.