Salaries
Public Sector Salaries
State salaries lag other public sector employers in all but one of the 41 benchmark classes surveyed. These salary lags account for the total compensation lags reported in the previous chapter.
- State salaries for Cook lead other public employers by less than one percent.
- The highest lag occurs in the Respiratory Care Practitioner class, where the State salary lags other public employers by 57 percent.
- Looking only at salaries, the State’s journey-level classes and executive-managerial classes both lag the rest of the public sector by roughly the same percentage (an average of 19 percent).
- Of the 65 public sector respondents, 50 granted COLAs to their managers last year ranging from 1.5 - 5.7 percent; 45 granted COLAs of 1 - 5 percent to non-managerial employees. As for future COLAs, 34 employers plan to give COLAs of 2 - 5 percent to managerial employees; 38 have scheduled COLAs of 2 - 5.7 percent for non-managers. State employees received a 5 percent general salary increase in July 2003.1
The State’s average salary lag behind other public sector employers is lowest in the Central Valley, as shown below:
| Region | % State salaries lag |
|---|---|
| Bay Area | 31.61 |
| Los Angeles | 21.23 |
| San Diego | 16.39 |
| Sacramento | 12.63 |
| Central Valley | 8.62 |
Exhibits B, C, and D compare the base salaries and total compensation of the State to the rest of California’s public sector, by geographic region. Exhibit E presents public sector cost-of-living adjustments.
Private Sector Salaries
Private sector salary data helps provide a more complete picture of the State’s relative position in the labor market. While “total compensation” comparisons would be more useful, even this limited data has value.
First, a note about the data. The comparisons reported in this section use the State’s maximum salary for a benchmark class and the private sector median. Ordinarily, one would assume that maximum salaries should be compared to maximum salaries, and median salaries be compared to median salaries. However, in State service employees move to the top of their class salary range almost automatically as long as their performance is satisfactory. Therefore, the maximum salary represents the State’s “market rate.” In the private sector, there often is no maximum rate for a particular job and employees ordinarily move to the market rate, typically the median salary for the job.
Accordingly, this survey compares the State’s market rate (maximum salary) to the private sector market rate (median salary) to establish whether the State leads or lags the private sector.
Of the 41 benchmark classes, 20 were considered to have “valid” (i.e., comparable) private sector salary data, which can be summarized as follows:
- Administrative and Office: Compared to the private sector, State salaries lead in each of the four general administrative occupations (accounting, budgets, personnel, and clerical); the State leads the most for the Personnel Analyst class (10 percent). The State lags in the three technical areas (auditing, legal, and information technology); the greatest lag is for Auditor (8.5 percent).
- Trades and Support Services: The State leads private sector employers in all four of the comparable occupations, ranging from a lead of 4 percent for Electrician to 24 percent for Cook.
- Medical and Related: In all six of the benchmark classes where there was a comparable private sector occupation, the State lags the private sector. In four of the six, the lag exceeds 23 percent. The greatest lag is for Occupational Therapist (39 percent); the lag is smallest for Registered Nurse (5 percent).
- Executive and Managerial: In the three executive-level positions for which there was a valid match between the State and private sector occupations, the State also lags, from 6 percent for Chief Information Officer to 21 percent for Chief Financial Officer.
Table 4 displays this data.
FOOTNOTES
1 - General salary increases apply across the board. In addition, most State employees are eligible for annual “merit salary adjustments,” generally 5 percent, which are step increases within an established salary range. Employees who meet the required performance criteria receive the merit salary adjustment until they reach the top step of the range for their position.