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After narrow vote, council adopts MGT compensation study using 75th-percentile ranges
Summary
Following an extended finance-committee debate about turnover, pay compression and budget pressures, the Elmhurst City Council voted 9-4 to adopt the MGT compensation and classification study using the 75th-percentile salary ranges to guide the city's compensation policy.
The Elmhurst City Council voted to accept the findings of the MGT classification and compensation study using the 75th-percentile ranges after extended debate over fiscal trade-offs, turnover risk and pay compression.
Alderman Dan Virgil moved to substitute a minority report recommending the 65th percentile; he and supporters said the change would yield modest savings (about $35,000 over three years) and better compression metrics. "I want to make sure that what we're doing ... we're being as fiscally responsible as we can," Virgil said in explaining interest in the 65th-percentile option.
Supporters of the majority report, which preserves the city's long-standing 75th-percentile practice, argued the small near-term savings did not outweigh risks to retention, recruitment and internal pay compression that could grow over the three-year life of the study. "When we go out and recruit and people know how we treat our staff in Elmhurst, this is the place they're going to want to be," the mayor said, urging continued investment in staff retention.
The council first voted on the minority substitute; the motion to adopt the 65th-percentile substitute failed (4 yes, 9 no). The council then voted on the majority recommendation at the 75th percentile and approved it by roll call, nine yes, four no, one absent. Council members asked staff to continue the finance committee's "deep dive" into the general fund to identify additional savings; staff reported the committee has identified ideas that could yield further savings in subsequent budget work.
The study updates job groupings and recommended salary ranges across 44 positions and calls for changes to take effect beginning Jan. 1, 2026; the majority report and council vote set the policy for administering the pay ranges going forward.
Next steps: staff will implement the ranges and bring any payroll adjustments required to align current salaries with the new ranges; the finance committee will continue its multi-month review of the general fund.
