Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Employee Compensation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council hears final Segal report on citywide classification and compensation; staff to model implementation costs
Summary
Consultant Segal presented a final classification and compensation review for city employees, recommending new pay structures, open ranges and several implementation options (bring‑to‑minimum, general wage increases, or capped increases). Council asked staff to return with costed scenarios for the FY‑26 budget.
Consultant Segal on April 1 presented the final results of an 18‑month classification and compensation study for the City of Raleigh, recommending an expanded job classification architecture, new salary structures and several phased options for implementing pay adjustments.
Why it matters: The study affects pay for roughly 4,85 job titles across the organization and directly informs FY‑26 budget decisions about retaining and recruiting staff across public safety, operations and administrative functions.
What the study found and recommended Segal partner Patrick Bracken said the analysis increased the city’s organized job titles from 350 to 485 and defined 37 job families. Segal benchmarked 101 survey titles against 11 peer employers and national published data sources. "Raleigh’s pay ranges are below market across the minimum, midpoint and maximum," Bracken said, summarizing the core market finding: pay‑range minimums averaged about 86% of market, midpoints 91% and maximums 93%.
Segal recommended five structured pay plans: nonexempt (9 grades), exempt (15 grades), police (10 grades), fire (9 grades) and a new emergency communications (ECC) structure (7 grades). The firm proposed open pay ranges (not step systems) with a designed pyramid of narrower ranges at entry grades and wider ranges at mid and top grades to enable performance‑based flexibility.
Implementation options and timeline Segal and staff outlined three implementation approaches: 1) bring employees below new range minimums up to the minimum; 2) bring to minimum plus a general wage increase (modeled at 8–12%); or 3) bring to minimum plus wage increase with a cap on individual increases. City staff said costed scenarios will be included in the FY‑26 budget packet; the manager’s office expects to present final numbers prior to the budget presentation in May.
Council reaction and next steps Councilors asked for clarity on effects for long‑tenured employees above range midpoints, the study’s treatment of benefits (not part of Segal’s scope) and whether peer cities use open ranges or step systems. Staff said HR will send a follow‑up memo with benefit benchmarking and show phased cost models for the 8–12% scenarios. Council asked that implementation minimize pay compression and address the public safety recruitment pipeline (academy throughput limits affect how many new positions can be onboarded annually).
The consultant said the final job descriptions and report will be delivered to the city team within weeks, after which staff will provide a full funding recommendation for FY‑26.
