Appendix_E_Summary_of_County's_Compensation_Philosophy.pdf

Appendix D: Summary of County’s Compensation Philosophy

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Compensation Philosophy

General Information

The County’s compensation strategy supports County beliefs and aims to maintain external competitiveness and internal equity. It takes into account the following:

• Compliance with County obligations as stated in the Charter and Ordinance Code

• Fair compensation to employees

• Competitive compensation to attract applicants

• Comparability to other jurisdictions and agencies

• Budget and organizational issues and projections

• Trends, cost of living and funding issues

• Union agreements and issues

• Classification versus compensation issues

The County’s compensation strategy focuses on the Bay Area labor market and include public employers both at the County and City level, and which may also include specialized private and public sectors for a few select jobs. The strategy uses a combination of market pricing and job ranking approach in establishing pay.

Pay Equity

Pay equity is central to San Mateo County’s comprehensive compensation philosophy and policies. Our approach to compensation is grounded in principles of fairness and equity for all employees. We believe employees performing substantially similar work should be paid fairly and equitably, regardless of sex, race, or ethnicity.

Pay equity is an important pillar of our diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. The County will strive to foster a culture of pay equity and parity by (a) conducting pay equity analyses when creating new classifications or conducting salary surveys; (b) providing transparent data on workforce pay equity to County departments and the public; and (c) making compensation-related decisions that balances internal and external market data and is based on job-related competencies.

Labor Market Comparators

San Mateo County compares salary information with:

• The following Bay Area Counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sonoma;

• The two largest cities in the comparator Bay Area Counties: Oakland and San Jose.

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For nurse and physician classifications, as well as hospital-specific medical classifications, the following agencies are used for comparison:

• Alameda County Medical Center

• Contra Costa Regional Medical Center

• San Francisco General Hospital

• Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

• Sonoma Valley Hospital

These agencies are used as comparators due to their geographic proximity to the County.

These employers will have a significant impact on the labor market within which the County competes for talent pool.

For select classifications, the County may consider jurisdictions other than those identified above. The use of data from other agencies is done on a case-by-case basis. For example, for airport-related technical positions, the County has historically used Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and Napa County airports as well as the Hayward, Livermore, and Palo Alto airports as these agencies have airport operations most comparable to the County’s airports.

Relevance of External Data

To be considered comparable, data must be available from at least five (5) comparable agencies. For nursing, physician and hospital-specific medical-related positions, data must be available from at least three (3) comparable agencies.

Compensation Setting

The County’s compensation strategy considers Labor Market Placement and Internal Equity when establishing pay and determining salary adjustments and equities.

• Labor Market Placement It is the intent of the County compensation policy to adjust salary range of a classification if salary is found to be 5% or more behind the market median. Salary would be adjusted so that it matches the median of salary data from at least five

(5) comparator agencies. In establishing salary of new classifications, the median of the labor market is considered.

• Internal Equity In addition to labor market placement, salary adjustments and new salaries are also evaluated against related classifications within the County to ensure fair pay for classifications performing similar or related work. Typically, to establish internal equity, the salary of other classifications in the series, if applicable, and/or the classifications above and below are reviewed.

In instances when labor market data is not available, salary adjustment or placement would be based entirely on internal equity.

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Timing of Salary Adjustments

Salaries are generally adjusted only during contract negotiations for represented classes.

For most management classifications, salaries are generally adjusted after completion of contract negotiations with the County’s major unions.

During periods of limited financial resources, equity adjustments are generally limited to classifications that are both significantly behind comparator data and for which the County is experiencing significant recruitment and retention problems. Where both conditions do not exist, equity adjustments are generally not made.

Salary adjustments for management positions - Salaries for management classifications are assigned to a band. The bands are in increments of 5%. When making equity adjustments for management classifications, salaries are adjusted to the next closest band.