General Employee Wage Study

The City of Lakeland is soliciting proposals from qualified firms to conduct a General Employee Wage Study. The goal of this study is to evaluate the competitiveness of the City's compensation levels by comparing the minimum, midpoint, and maximum salaries for non-bargaining classifications with those with similar roles in peer organizations.

This study is an important step in maintaining the City’s compensation philosophy of targeting the 50th percentile of the labor market and supporting recruitment and retention of a qualified workforce.

1. Organizational Overview

1. 1. The City of Lakeland has approximately 2,453 budgeted positions:
      1. 2,183 full-time regular
      2. 40 part-time regular
      3. 11 full-time temporary
      4. 219 part-time temporary
   2. Approximately 790 positions are represented by collective bargaining units and are excluded from this study.

1. Current Compensation System

1. 1. Non-exempt employees are placed in a pay grade and step system.
      1. The step system consists of 15 steps.
      2. There is 3% between steps 1-8 and 2.5% between 8-15.
      3. There are 23 pay grades
   2. Exempt employees are placed in a pay range.
      1. The pay range consist of a minimum, midpoint, and maximum.
      2. There are 16 pay ranges.

C. The City follows a compensation philosophy aligned with the 50th percentile of the labor market.

D. Previous Studies

1. 1. The most recent pay study was conducted in 2023.
   2. Since then, compensation benchmarking has been conducted internally, on a case-by-case basis.

E. Study Scope

1. 1. All non-bargaining job classifications will be included in this study.
   2. Positions covered by collective bargaining units are not included.
   3. Only minimum, midpoint, and maximum compensation levels are to be analyzed and reported.