STARKVILLE — Following a salary and position study, the board of aldermen on Tuesday will consider raising the minimum wage for city workers by roughly $1.40.

The city’s human resources department partnered with the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development at Mississippi State University to conduct the study, the results of which were presented to aldermen at their Friday work session.

Research Associate Matthew Peterson, who spearheaded the study, examined several other municipalities throughout Mississippi, including Oxford, other North Mississippi cities and even some along the Gulf Coast, to ensure Starkville’s city positions and pay were equivalent to those across the state.

Peterson presented the survey results to the board of aldermen at the board’s work session Friday. He said he “matched up” 147 different positions throughout all city departments and did an “apples to apples comparison” to see if job salaries are where they should be. The only department Peterson said he struggled finding data for was the airport department due to many municipalities not having one.

“We really made sure we went through every department and evaluated positions,” Peterson said. “ … We did a lot of follow up talking with department heads and whoever we had to speak to to make sure that we got the correct data.”

Still, HR Director Navarrete Ashford is recommending the city raise the minimum wage for entry level city positions from about $12.30 to $13.70 per hour.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city has tried to increase minimum wage over the past few years. She said not only does the city want to be competitive with salaries, but it also wants to be fair in paying a living wage.

The study, which cost the city about $2,500, also helped in identifying areas that struggle with retention throughout the city such as the police and fire departments and the road department.
“I think we were able to achieve the goal that we set out to do,” Ashford said.

The board of aldermen will vote on the changes to salaries for some positions throughout the city at its regular meeting Tuesday.

While the board only received the results Thursday afternoon and did not have much time for review before Friday’s work session, Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk said she wants to ensure that positions are equitable and consistent across all departments.

“The thing I’m concerned about is that we’re consistent in how we treat all of our employees and that we are comparing apples to apples,” Sistrunk said. “From what (Peterson) was saying, y’all did a deeper dive this time than in the past to make sure that job titles and job duties were consistent amongst groups we were comparing to.”

Reorganization of human resources department
The HR department plans to shift some of its positions.

Ashford said he has an open position within his department, which gives him an opportunity to look at the structure of human resources.

He said he wants to merge his part-time administrative assistant position with the city clerk’s office part-time payroll position, creating a full-time position to handle the duties of the two previous positions. He said many other cities have payroll under HR, and he believes this will bring more accountability to his department.

“What I have discovered is, I don’t really need an administrative assistant position because that particular person that we have now basically takes care of liability and workers compensation, so it’s not really filling up the day-to-day duties,” Ashford said. “The position in the city clerk’s office now is part time payroll, so what we’re going to do is merge those two positions together.”

Ashford said he also would like the intern position within the mayor’s office to be within his department now to help with recruitment for all city positions.

“I really want to focus on branding the department (with this position), getting the recruitment out, making sure we’re getting the word out, going to job fairs, handling data on the internet,” Ashford said. “… It’s something we’re doing now, but a lot of times it’s not consistent.”

The board will vote on the HR reorganization at Tuesday’s board meeting.