Columbia Association staff members are paid appropriately compared with similar positions in the marketplace, according to a salary study presented to the CA board this week.
But the study results of 145 positions haven?t silenced a watchdog group concerned some top execs are paid too much.
“It wasn?t very sufficient,” Alex Hekimian, head of the Alliance for a Better Columbia, said of the study?s approach.
Philadelphia-based consultant Hay Group studied CA salaries and benefits to determine if they are aligned with local government, nonprofit and industry jobs in the area.
The study found pay is closely linked to the job, “suggesting disciplined salary administration processes and effective budgetary controls.”
Lower-level position salaries are slightly above market and higher-level positions slightly below, the study found.
Despite a few outliers considered “individual exceptions,” the association has “effectively maintained a broadly competitive position in the marketplace for talent,” the study states.
The study was released about six months after the Alliance for a Better Columbia raised concerns that five of the seven top CA employees were pulling six-figure salaries.
Steve Sattler, CA?s director of marketing and communications, said the study negates any claims that the association was overpaying its staff.
“We have a lot of confidence in the way we are implementing our program,” he said.
The consultants recommended CA move all employees to the proposed salary minimums and provide all employees with an up to 3 percent pay increase based on performance.
Sattler called these recommendations “minor tweaking.”
The adjustments could cost about $144,000, according to the study, but the recently approved budget includes a $500,000 contingency fund for salary adjustments, Sattler said.
However, Hekimian said the study didn?t account for some of the other benefits employees receive, such as bonuses and free package plans for CA services.
He also was concerned the study gave equal weight to government, industry and nonprofits, when the association acts more like a government with the annual charge to residents.
“I would not accept the way they used their methodologies to come up with average salaries,” he said.
Any changes based on the recommendations won?t reduce the exorbitant salaries of the top brass, Hekimian said.
