Wausau committee approves reclassification of assessment department jobs over dissent about broader wage study

The Wausau Human Resources Committee on June 9 approved reclassifications for multiple positions in the city assessment department, voting 4–1 to accept the HR director’s recommended grade and step changes.

The HR director (name not specified) told the committee that a 2023 compensation review covered only 53 of the city’s roughly 124 unique job titles and that many job descriptions lack clearly identified compensable duties. “The job descriptions are really the impetus of all compensation studies,” the director said, arguing that limited data led the prior consultant to “slot” the assessor position instead of placing it in a data-driven grade.

The director recommended slotting the city assessor at a higher grade and implementing a lattice of changes across assessment roles. Specific recommended changes discussed included moving the assessor to a Level 5, updating the level-2 position to…