Currituck County hears pay-study recommendations; implementation would cost about $1.7 million

Currituck County commissioners on Monday heard a presentation from David Hill of the Piedmont Triad Regional Council recommending a new countywide pay plan to bring county salaries closer to market and address persistent recruitment and retention problems.

The consultant recommended adopting a single pay plan with a 50% range between minimum and maximum pay, moving the current 2% step differential toward a 5% career-step differential by first adopting a 3% differential, and using a comp-ratio model that would place most employees at the market midpoint by their eighth year in a position. The presentation estimated a total implementation cost of about $1,700,000 across all county funds for fiscal year 2025–26, including roughly $1,386,000 in direct salary adjustments and about $367,000 in payroll-associated costs such as FICA and retirement contributions.

Why it matters: County leaders said the study responds to continuing turnover and hiring shortages in several core departments and aims to give managers more flexibility to offer market pay to experienced hires. Commissioners and staff said they view the recommendations as a multi-year effort that would change how longevity and incentives are applied and would require budget decisions for the next fiscal year.

David Hill, the consultant from Piedmont Triad Regional Council who conducted the study, described the methodology used to set the market and compare Currituck positions to similar jobs in nearby local governments. "The expectation of these kinds of studies is to determine, first of all, a market," Hill told commissioners, summarizing seven months of job questionnaires, supervisor reviews and workplace interviews used to match county positions to peer jurisdictions.

Hill said the county’s existing pay plan contains many narrow grade ranges (about a 17% administered range for most grades), while the market the consultant compared against averages a roughly 50% range with a larger inter-grade differential (about 5.4%). "Your administered grade range is about 17%. The average local government range is 50%." Hill said, arguing the narrower range and 2% differential reduce the county’s ability to recognize experience or to match external market offers.

Human Resources Director Melissa Futrell explained step advancement under the current system: "At initial hire, you're hired in step 1. After 6 months of successful employment you advance to step 2 and then after an additional 6 months ... you advance to step 3," after which many employees remain until promotion or another personnel action.

Hill and Futrell showed representative position worksheets comparing Currituck’s pay grades and average salaries to peer counties for titles such as deputy sheriff, social worker, firefighter/EMT and telecommunicator. For example, the presentation showed the county’s pay grade minimum for deputy sheriff was slightly higher than the market minimum, but that the county’s average deputy pay was about 8.5% below the market average for similar jurisdictions. For telecommunicators and some social services positions, Hill recommended moving the position into a higher pay grade to reduce gaps with peer averages.

County Manager Rebecca (last name not given in the record) outlined current vacancy levels while introducing the topic: "We've got 5 vacancies in detention, 7 vacancies in emergency medical services, 5 vacancies in communications, 2 in planning, 2 in permits and inspections," and additional openings across utilities, public works, social services and the sheriff’s office. She and Hill both noted that some vacancies are being filled and that vacancy counts move quickly as new hires are onboarded.

On implementation and timing, Hill recommended starting the new pay plan at the beginning of the next fiscal year if commissioners choose to fund it. He proposed administering all employees under the same pay plan rather than separate sworn/non-sworn schedules and described an implementation option that phases employees to market midpoints by years of service and time in position rather than uniformly across the workforce. Hill said his recommended initial differential of 3% is a step toward the market-average 5% differential and that moving immediately to 5% would nearly double the up-front implementation cost.

Staff explained the $367,000 payroll-associated cost portion includes employer-side contributions such as FICA and retirement and that some roles are funded from non-operating funds (for example, tourism or enterprise funds), so the operating-budget impact would be lower than the gross total. Melissa Futrell said the county currently contributes about 6.39% to retirement/benefit costs and that staff plan to recommend capping the county’s 401(k) contribution at 5% to align with peer practice.

Commissioners asked about where prior adjustments left the county. Futrell and other staff reminded the board that a prior multi-year pay study and conservative increases in recent years bridged some of the gap but did not fully close it, and that neighboring jurisdictions continued to provide cost-of-living adjustments during the three-year rollout that left Currituck behind. As Futrell put it, last year’s increase helped "bridge the gap, but it's not going to bring us to where we really need to be." Commissioner Payne and others voiced surprise that the county remained below market despite recent increases and asked for clarification of the total fiscal impact and timing.

No formal decision or vote was taken at the meeting. Commissioners thanked staff for the analysis and said they would consider the recommendations during budget planning for fiscal year 2025–26.

Provenance: The presentation, slides and staff remarks are the primary source for the facts above; highlights of the consultant’s market comparisons, the proposed pay plan structure (50% range, phased to midpoint by year 8) and the estimated $1.7 million implementation cost were presented orally during the meeting by David Hill and Melissa Futrell and appear in the transcript excerpt for this agenda item.

Ending: Staff said they will refine implementation options, provide additional details about how longevity and incentives would be folded into the proposed pay plan, and return to commissioners with budget-level recommendations during the fiscal 2025–26 budget process.