Salary Comparisons

Last night, a local television news reporter covered the salary for three school superintendents in counties south of us. What caught my attention is that this reporter compared these salaries to that of Governor Bush. The governor of our state is paid lower than any of these three superintendents. It made me think of the Mercer report just completed for the Hernando County that has apparently indicated across the board raises for most county employees this year. Keep in mind that in addition to the projected raises for the Mercer study, employees will also receive customary 5% increases this year. The Mercer study compares our county government employee job classifications and salaries with other county government(s) employees. Getting back to the television report, compare Governor Bush's salary at $124,000 a year to the starting wage for our new county administrator, Gary Kuhl, who will start at $120,000. By October, Mr. Kuhl's salary will be raised to $126,000, with the customary 5% merit increase, and this does not include the Mercy study increase. The Mercer Group is consulting firm that specializes in wage and salary structure studies, and has a clientele base that consists primarily of government entities. These Mercer studies have been used twice in the past (1998/12% & 2002/7%) to generate approximately 19% increases for Hernando County employees. These past increases do not include the yearly raises at approximately 5% per year for most employees. One question needs to be considered as budget talks begin for this year in Hernando County, "Is the Mercer Group artificially generating wage increases based on a comparison method of their own clientele base?"