Aspen raises wages to retain employees
» The City Council agreed Tuesday to an increase of $ 1.75 million to cover pay increases for employees.
About $ 1.2 million was appropriated last fall as an estimate in this year’s budget after the council received an analysis of the municipal government’s pay structure by compensation and classification consultant Segal Company.
But that estimate was created before any market analysis was started by Segal, according to Alissa Farrell, the city’s administrative services director.
The council agreed with her recommendation to implement a new pay plan, with the approval of an additional $ 550,000, which will result in an average wage increase of about $ 9,000 per full- time employee.
“When I look at where we’re at compared to the competitive market set, I am extremely concerned about retaining quality staff, and I need the council’s help to address that through economic means to address the compensation side of it. And then we’ll still need to have a conversation around benefits and housing in the future,” City Manager Sara Ott said.
“Are we going to pay people to be able to live in free- market housing here? Because that number is unaffordable for our local government if you want them living and working in our community. And so this plan takes into account the fact that we have mitigation opportunities.”
Those opportunities come in the form of subsidized units in the AspenPitkin County Housing Authority and the city’s own deed- restricted properties and down payment assistance program.
The pay plan the council agreed to is part of the city’s total compensation philosophy, which was adopted last year and is designed to reduce turnover, as well as increase the ability to attract and retain employees and ensure equitable pay, parity in jobs, highly competitive pay and career advancement opportunities.
Data through exit interviews shows about half of the city’s workers who left their jobs this year did so because of pay.
The city’s turnover rate in the past five years has fluctuated from 10.4% to 14.9%, which is considered high when compared with other municipalities.
The $ 1.75 million that the Cty Council agreed to covers only 2022, so elected officials will have to consider continual increases in future years.
Councilman John Doyle said the pay increases are appropriate given the cost of living in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“In my time here in town, it seems like employees used to take a cut in pay just for the benefit of being able to live here, and a lot of that was due to they had a lot of housing options,” he said. “I realize the challenges of living here, and I think this is appropriate to be able to retain employees like we’re trying to do.”