Most Kodiak city jobs start below market pay, consultant tells council

Most City of Kodiak jobs start below what comparable employers pay, and nearly half the city's workers have been there two years or less, according to a consultant's pay study the City Council will discuss Wednesday, Nov. 4.

McGrath Human Resources Group found that starting pay for 79% of the city's job classifications lags the market. It recommends a new salary schedule that would let new hires reach the market average within two years.

The council won't vote Wednesday. Adopting a new schedule would take a vote at a regular meeting, and the report doesn't say what the changes would cost.

The firm points to life on an island. Kodiak depends on planes and boats to reach the mainland, which narrows the pool of people willing to move there. As a Coast Guard town, it sees workers come and go with military transfers. And it competes for hires with employers across Alaska and the Lower 48.

McGrath compared Kodiak with 14 other Alaska cities, from Sitka and Juneau to Unalaska and Wasilla, plus some state and Coast Guard jobs. The gap grows with time on the job. At the middle of the pay ranges, 87% of classifications lag the market by the same measure, and the firm said the city's raises may not be keeping pace with wage growth elsewhere.

Nearly half of city employees, 49%, have been with the city two years or less, and 39% have been in their current job less than a year. Workers under 40, nearly half the staff, have averaged less than 2.5 years with the city, and the firm calls keeping them a key focus. Overall, though, city employees average 5.4 years on the job, about the national average for local government.

The proposed schedule would replace the city's 30 pay grades with 25, each with 10 steps 3.5% apart. The current schedule has 15 smaller steps of roughly 2% to 2.5%. It would keep the city's goal of paying at the middle of the market, but McGrath suggests moving gradually above it and adjusting the schedule every year.

The firm called the city's health plan "a genuine strength." The city pays the full premium, deductibles are $1,000 for a single employee and $3,000 for a family, and the plan covers travel to doctors outside Alaska when care isn't available locally. "The City's greatest strength is also its greatest exposure," the report says, because a fully paid premium is hard to sustain if premiums jump.

McGrath also suggests adding at least one floating holiday to the city's 13 and considering a single bank of paid time off in place of separate vacation and sick leave.

The work session starts at 6:30 pm in the Kodiak Public Library multipurpose room and will be streamed online.