So I was looking at the list of 2015 city salaries last week (DOC:2015-Wages-January) mostly out of curiosity, and decided to pull up my 2014 city salary listing (DOC:Â Sioux Falls SD 2014-Wages-January) to do a couple of comparisons. As I started digging, I started to see a trend, so I gave the spreadsheets to a friend to see if what I was seeing was correct. A couple of days later, I sit in awe at the massive raises given to management this year compared to the very small 2-3% raises given to hourly employees.
Management:
2014 Employees:Â 422
2015 Employees:Â 412
2014 Salaries: $29,627,149.78
2015 Salaries: $29,981,602.74
These numbers are approximate due to calculations done to extrapolate hourly to 2040 hours per year average.
Hourly:
2014 Employees: 1087
2015 Employees: 1063
2014 Wages: $46,619,989.80
2015 Wages: $46,891,405.84
Here is a department breakdown of employees (DOC:2014-15 Department list) You will notice in this document that many of the Street Department employees moved from that department into Engineering. I still haven’t figured that one out yet, but it may be some justification for larger raises.
What is shocking is where the big raises came in, mostly the Fire Department. Which I find curious since there have never been any public reports about how effective the FD has been in putting out fires (preventing extensive damage, etc.), just saving lives. Also the fact that the FD is also responsible for EMS emergency calls, and have a good track record with them, yet we have contracted the most expensive ambulance service for the city.
But other departments like the Health Director, Library, Mayor’s office and PD also rolled in some big ones. While the graphic below shows the ‘Big Hitter List’ if you look at the entire city listing (DOC: 2014-15 Combined Salary List) You will see that many in management got over a 7% raise, almost DOUBLE what the hourly wage earners received.
Strangely enough, there seems to be a correlation between departments making the ‘Big Wins’ list and management getting raises. Not sure if this is a coincidence, but I am guessing it is.
I also must point out, this is a simple spreadsheet only comparing WAGES & SALARIES between the two years and doesn’t go into details about bonuses and does not include benefits and pension plans. Wages only, and the percentage increases are based solely on the information provided from the City of Sioux Falls in the two wage tables.
I’ve been told by a city official that certain formulas are used by HR to determine what a salary increase should be when moving up in the department and title changes, and how it compares against the private sector. But I can tell you from reading this preliminary report, I have no idea what that would be, especially when you see a landfill employee getting a $18K a year raise simply by going to salary vs. hourly – it almost looks like an accounting error, and very well could be.
What is disheartening about this review is that the city really is picking ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ when it comes to it’s employees and management (some managers only received a 3% raise). This is something that is more prevalent in the corporate world and not in the public sector where achievements are measured differently.
I guess this is what we get when our city is run like a business.
UPDATE (1): Just when we thought the fun was over with crunching the numbers, Poly brings up a point about the temp staff. Here is breakdown of them (DOC: Temporary employees per year )
The city claims it has over 1200 full time employees. Want to see how it works? Go down the list and see for yourself just how many have the word temp in the job description. That means no more than 28 hours a week, no benefits, and very meager hourly salaries. This is not just about the parks department. Look at the Library department, or Landfill. Both top heavy with employees making over 80 grand a year….sandwiched by many more employees making less than 14 thousand a year.
This is the new reality in today’s work world.
Jill Franken makes 30k more than the mayor. What makes her so valuable? Couldn’t she be replaced with a contractor so that her expense does not also translate into a cushy retirement?
The landfill employee you speak of didn’t just move from hourly to salary. She was promoted into an entirely different position from a tech to a management position. So no it isn’t an accounting error.
Also city raises are staggered so hourly adjustments don’t always happen the same year as management adjustments. There are many factors so maybe do more research before putting someone’s name out there claiming their raise is due an accounting error.
Davis, thanks for clearing that up. I guess when you get promoted in the city landfill you qualify for a 50% raise. Nice to know.
Secondly, this is public information provided on the city website and these wages are paid for by taxpayers, we have a right to the information, and that is why the information is on the city website. I am not revealing anything that is a ‘secret’
http://www.siouxfalls.org/~/media/Documents/hr/2015/2015-Wages-January.pdf?item=m
As I said above “I also must point out, this is a simple spreadsheet only comparing WAGES & SALARIES between the two years and doesn’t go into details about bonuses and does not include benefits and pension plans.”
I would LOVE to know more about how the formula’s work, and hopefully this post will chide the city providing us that information. So if you work for them Davis, please encourage them to explain the raise formulas.
Dan, you need an actual warm body working for the city to sign off on monopolistic/most expensive ambulance service, a temp consultant just won’t do.
A warm body shouldn’t cost this much. Nobody should make more than the mayor. She should take a 50k pay cut. She has no duties if there’s an ambulance service monopoly. Her position has no relevance if she’ll not bother to evaluate a cheaper better ambulance service such as MedStar.
First, you gripe about how nobody can make a living in SGF, then you get pissed about anyone who does make a semi-decent salary. Poly bitches about all the temps, then Dan wants to turn one of the better paying positions into a temp’s/”contractor’s” job. You hate on the mayor, then are upset he gets paid less to a staff member. Geez.
So Davis, you’re saying raises are staggered? I gotta argue that one. Department heads seem to get a raise EVERY year. Just a example. Cotter had gone from 135k to over 175k in just the last 6 years. A raise in each of those years. Same for all department heads.
Governor is not the State’s highest paid employee.
Water rates have tripled since 2007. During that same span, the department head of public works gets a 40k raise????
The term temp in city hiring lingo is misleading. Nothing really temp about it. Most are temp/full time, meaning they are full time employees, just cannot work more than 28 hours a week, no benefits at all, and can be sent home or asked to work more at the heads leisure.
So tell me ruf. Should a department head, any department head, make 15 times as much as his front line employees?
Seems like the directors and department heads build their wealth and power with high pay and number of declared full time but actually part time subordinates. 1200 private employees would be a national corporation with billion dollar revenue. Here, we lack infrastructure yet have a half billion debt. The city builds a public bath house and gladiator coliseum to enthuse and pacify the upper class. Meanwhile, peasants dumpster dive to survive. If this city is run like a business, the business is draining the general population to present a false impression via false advertisement and Ponzi styled marketing.
I have to rant just a little bit more on this one. Not even certain I know where to begin. We’ll start with…
Point 1. EXACTLY 25% of all city hourly employees are temps. Would probably be 75% if management had their way. Leaves lots of room for a higher yearly bonus. Thanks to unions though, this number is kept as low as humanly possible.
Point 2. Typical city temp is hired with the carrot dangled in front of their noses that if they work real hard, do whatever they’re told, someday a full time gig might be theirs. Total BS. I seen this same song and dance for years at the Postal Service. Somewhere in the early 90’s the PO worked into the contract the right to have 10% of the workforce be…in management terms….casual. Paid em $12 an hour, no bennies, and worked their butts off any time of day they wanted them to come in. No max hours…just whenever it was convenient for management to call them in. They were also under a 90 day contract. If they did exactly as they were told, whenever they were told at the end of that 90 day contract management would lay them off for a week, then hire them back for another casual stint of 90 days. And on. And on. And on. They all to a person started their stints bright eyed and bushy tailed, eager to prove they had what it took to make full time. But those things never happened. Over time, the light disappeared from their eyes and eventually figured out they’d just waisted a couple years their lives. I always treated casuals with the deepest dignity and respect, but never got too close cuz I knew how it always ended. When I retired several years ago casuals could make up 20% of the total workforce and were at least making a relatively decent hourly salary of $14 an hour. Have no idea how the casual game is played today. But make no mistake about it. The city is playing the exact same game. Do not buy into the lie that city temps are just college kids with summer jobs. Most have been there many years waiting for the management lie of possible full employment to come to fruition.
Point 3. 1 of 4 hourly city employees are temps with a median income of about $10 an hour, 28 hours a week. If one of these city employees wanted to play an hours worth of tennis at the new huether indoor tennis courts it will cost him over 4 hours of wages per hour to play.
http://www.playthepointe.com/categories/
Entertainment for everyone? Yeah….right. Same for the indoor pool. Designed for Snowfox, a years membership for a city temp will be over 200 hours of take home pay.
Point 4. This is where our country is headed. If big bidness had their way, 80% of all hourly employees would be temps.
TOTAL BS.
Yeah, that tennis place looks totally affordable 🙁
Now look at Woodlake’s fees, about half;
http://woodlakeathleticclub.com/tennis/
But Hey, we need public indoor swimming and tennis so the general public can afford it . . . blah, blah, blah.
And doesn’t someone want or need a gherkin or some kind of pickle ball court also?
Cushy exercise, water therapy, pickles. Our population is in the last trimester. Boy or girl? Let’s name it Sanford.