After studying the salaries for city employees around the Greater Houston area, the Missouri City staff recommended the City Council approve a 3 percent pay adjustment across the board for all workers in May.  The City Council voted in favor of the adjustment on the first of two readings of the ordinance at the May 16 meeting.

If approved at the second reading, exempt and nonexempt city positions will be at 95 percent of the salaries of the comparable cities featured in the recent study, while public safety positions will be at 100 percent.

Positions are classified as exempt or nonexempt depending on whether they are subject to minimum wage, overtime pay or child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The study—conducted by Segal Waters Consulting—began in January and was first presented to the council at its May 2 meeting. Ruth Ann Eledge, vice president of Segal Waters Consulting, said salaries for Missouri City’s exempt and nonexempt positions, as well as fire and rescue services staff, lagged behind a market of 15 Texas cities that provided data, including Sugar Land, Stafford, Katy and Richmond.

“Our recommendation is you bring your pay midpoints of your exempt and nonexempt [pay] structure to within that plus or minus 95 percent [of the market],” Eledge said. “Doing so would mean a 6.6 percent adjustment for exempt pay structures and an 11 percent adjustment for nonexempt pay structures.”

For public safety positions, Eledge reported that Missouri City police ranked above the average minimum salary of cities studied. Hourly rates for fire and rescue services met the minimum, while annual salaries for the department were at 96 percent of the minimum.

“This is a pretty solid, very substantial amount of data and a good representation of your entire workforce,” Eledge said.

Edward Williams, Missouri City human resources director, said police salaries were adjusted in 2015, which could explain why those pay ranges more closely resembled those of other cities.

Houston, Rosenberg, Pearland, Bellaire and Conroe were also part of the study. Data took into consideration the work weeks, average salaries, FLSA status and salary ranges of 85 of Missouri City’s 124 positions, according to the report.

Raises will be effective July 3 as part of fiscal year 2017. Council Member Jerry Wyatt pointed out that the salary increases were previously included in the city’s 2014-29 Strategic Plan.

In fiscal year 2016, $55,000 was budgeted for the compensation study, which was recommended by Assistant City Manager Bill Atkinson in 2015 to ensure the city offered competitive wages.

“I think hopefully, now that this happened, the city will continue in that effort of making sure we keep staff salaries at a level to make sure they are competitive in the marketplace,” Wyatt said.