In order to fairly compensate non-certified employees with several years of service to the school system, Jackson County Public Schools has instituted a new local salary decompression schedule.
Pay compression is an issue that can develop over time in which there is little difference in pay between employees regardless of varying experience or credentials. In North Carolina Public Schools, this issue has been exacerbated by the state-mandated pay increases, and hourly minimums, for employees outlined in the last few state budgets.
“[This provides] the ability for us as an employer to honor our non-certified staff years of service,” said Superintendent Dana Ayers. “That’s the key for all of this because the state pay increases have done wonders for us and we greatly appreciate that, but it’s more of a level so that folks that have been here for 20 years are making the same as a person that was hired yesterday. So we’re trying to recognize that and honor that through various levels.”
In the 2022-2023 budget, the state mandated increases for hourly school employees by 4% or to $15 per hour, whichever was greater. Just the year before, pay increased to $13 per hour minimum. In this year’s budget, there is another mandated 4% increase.
The new pay schedule contains pay scales based upon required non-certified guidelines provided by the Department of Public Instruction. While not all non-certified staff are funded locally, there will be local funds used to pay for some of the compensation increases.
“We wanted a plan that we could actually make happen,” said Human Resources Director Teri Walawender. “We had to be able to do something that we could actually achieve. Something that would work long term.”
The goal of the new pay schedule is not only to decompress salaries and wages, but also to increase retention and recruitment, compensate employee dedication and commitment, provide hiring ranges for new hires in all positions and develop a tenable and sustainable plan for annual pay increases for non-certified employees.
“We hope for both of those things following this, compensating employee dedication and commitment,” said Walawender. “We have employees who have been here a long time who have committed years of service and we want to be able to retain those people.”
“We also want to be able to recruit,” Walawender said. “We have come up with salary scales that will allow us flexibility when we hire to allow us to look at competency, experience and qualifications, something that we haven’t done in the past.”
Secondary jobs — like after school care, tutors and other jobs that don’t fit the normal raise scale — have flat rates and will not be subject to increases according to the new schedule, but those rates will be reviewed annually.
A local raise of 2% will be provided to non-certified hourly employees in future years when there are no increases in the state budget. In years when the state mandates a raise, that 2% raise will not be provided.
“We could not do both in the same year,” said Walawender. “We would love to, but we can’t, not yet.”
New non-exempt employee pay rates will be determined using the relevant salary scale and based on qualifications, experience and competencies. The interview team will provide an overall rating for competencies and sign a recommendation to submit to human resources. Quartiles will be used to determine starting pay, the maximum of which will be the midpoint of the quartiles. The quartiles range from one, an individual that has no or minimal prior related education and experience above the minimum required for the job, to four, in which an individual is a proven expert in their position with in-depth knowledge and ability to fulfill all the duties and responsibilities of a position.
Credit for certifications will be given when determining quartiles, however, if a person gains additional credentials during their time with JCPS that increases the employee’s ability to serve in their role, the supervisor can request a salary review with human resources.
Sign-on bonuses will be determined by directors and district administrators and must have prior approval from human resources, finance and the department lead.
The immediate impact of the new pay schedule on the 2023-24 budget is $136,477 for state raises and an additional $70,968 for the new decompression costs.
“What’s important to remember is that a lot of these non-certified groups are paid from other budgets like federal budgets and state budgets,” Walawender said. “So we’re just catching the overflow in local. It’s not every single non-certified person that’s paid on our budget. That’s why those numbers don’t feel exorbitant, which we are glad, we feel they’re manageable.”
Another reason for the manageable number has to do with staff shortages, which most public schools in the region have been dealing with in recent years.
“Some of those budgets are able to pick up more of this that we’re putting on them, more of these increases because we haven’t been at full capacity,” Walawender said. “But we have looked at what full capacity would look like.”
The total local allocation for the JCPS budget for the 2023-24 school year was $9,411,936, plus $428,201 that the school system allocated from its fund balance to balance the budget.
“More than anything I think that our staff are going to be so grateful and appreciative for this,” said Ayers. “It’s going to honor the work and the commitment that they’ve given to JCPS.”