Template revised January 10, 2019.
COMMISSION
AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Item No.
8e
ACTION ITEM
Date of Meeting
November 29, 2022
DATE : November 2, 2022
TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director
FROM: Tammy Woodard, Human Resources Director – Total Rewards
Sandra Spellmeyer, Total Rewards Manager
SUBJECT: 2023 Salary and Benefits Program
ACTION REQUESTED
Request adoption of the Salary and Benefits Resolution No. 3807, amending the policy directive
for salaries and benefits for employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement
established by Resolution No. 3790 and providing an effective date for all amendments of
January 1, 2023.
This resolution establishes pay ranges for non-represented jobs and authorizing benefits that
comprise the overall benefits package offered to non-represented Port employees.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Salary and Benefits Resolution is the Port Commission’s authorization to revise the pay and
benefits programs that are part of the Port’s overall Total Rewards package for non-
represented employees. RCW 53.08.170 requires the Port Commission to authorize pay and
benefits for non-represented employees by resolution. The Salary and Benefits Resolution
establishes the pay ranges for non-represented jobs, authorizes new and updates existing
elements of the compensation program and authorizes updates to benefits plans that comprise
the overall benefits package offered to non-represented Port employees. This adoption will
establish the non-represented pay ranges for 2023 and include additions, deletions, and
changes to the Salary and Benefits Policy Directive that are contained in Resolution No. 3807,
the 2023 Salary and Benefits Resolution.
JUSTIFICATION
The Salary and Benefits Policy Directive specifies the pay and benefits programs authorized by
the Port Commission, while specifics of these programs are maintained in Port policies and
administrative details are found in program guides. The Policy Directive also includes benefits
offered to Port of Seattle retirees and to Port Commissioners, as well as the specifics and
administrative details of these benefits. Updates to the program are designed to keep the
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authorized pay and benefits plans current and ensure the Total Rewards package they are part
of continues to support the attraction and retention of employees with the talents and abilities
necessary for the Port to achieve its mission, vision, and goals.
This year’s changes include the regular updates to the Resolution, like adjustments to the pay
range structure, and they include additions to the pay program resulting from the
Compensation Project. This project is a 2 to 3 year project with involvement by many
employees across the Port, together with a consultant, to review the non-represented pay
program and identify what works well and what could work better. The project to date
includes multiple recommendations including adjustments to existing aspects of the program
and some new elements. The recommendations are included in the 2023 Salary and Benefits
Resolution. Next year Human Resources staff along with the consultants will focus on
implementing the new pay program elements and updates to existing program elements.
The 2023 Salary and Benefits Resolution includes the following recommended updates.
Definitions
In Section 2, Definitions we are recommending two additions to the list of definitions. These
definitions include Cost of Living Adjustment or COLA – an increase to an employees pay rate
based on changes to the Consumer Price Index and Pay Equity – compensating employees
similarly when they perform comparable work, and that pay differences between employees
performing comparable work can be explained by experience and performance.
These additions
support the recommendations from the Compensation Project work. There are additional
changes to update language that is redundant or could be clearer in this section.
Policy Establishing Jobs, Pay Grades, Graded Pay Range Structure, and Pay Rates
In Section 5.1.A.(1), Reporting requirements for certain positions, we are recommending editing
language under General Counsel to remove reference to Workplace Responsibility staff as this
group will become part of Human Resources in 2023.
In Section 5.1.C, The Graded Salary Range Structure will be updated. The Port’s goal is to have
pay ranges for non-represented jobs reflect the market pay rates for the Port’s non-
represented jobs as closely as we can. This year our assessment indicates that a 4% increase to
the range structure will be necessary to maintain market competitive pay ranges in 2023.
When reviewing the range structure we also keep an eye on the City of Seattle minimum wage
and the Sea-Tac minimum wage. These are both increasing significantly for 2023. The City of
Seattle minimum wage will be $18.69 per hour and the Sea Tac minimum will be over $19.00
per hour. Our grade 7 range minimum, even with a 4% increase, will be below the City of
Seattle minimum wage and our grade 8 minimum will be over the minimum wage by a small
amount. We currently have one job, with one incumbent in assigned to the grade 7 range and
two jobs but no incumbents assigned to the grade 8 range. In response to the increased City of
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Seattle minimum wage we recommend eliminating the grade 7 and grade 8 ranges and
administering the three jobs in these grades as grade 9 jobs beginning in 2023. The one
employee in the grade 7 job will have their pay adjusted, if necessary, to the minimum of the
grade 9 pay range.
It is important to note that when the Port adjusts pay ranges, employees do not receive
corresponding increases to their pay rates. This is different from how many public employers
administer pay for their non-represented employees. Only employees whose pay is below the
new minimum of the pay range for their job will receive an automatic pay increase, and the
increase will be only the amount necessary to bring their pay to the minimum of the range.
With our recommended 4% increase to the range structure, we estimate fewer than 30
employees will require this adjustment and the annual cost of the adjustment will be less than
$40,000.
In Section 5.1.E, we recommend that the “Pay Practices” be updated and reorganized to list the
items in this section in a more logical order:
1. Pay Considerations,
2. Payroll,
3. Initial Pay Practices.
We also recommend that the language in “Initial Pay Rates” be updated to be more in line with
the Port’s increasing focus on Pay Equity.
We further recommend that the other items in Section 5.1.E be moved to a new section, 5.1.F,
and that this new section be titled “Pay Types”. This new section will describe the different
ways employees can receive temporary or permanent changes to their pay rates. The items we
recommend moving from the “Pay Practices” section to the new “Pay Types” section include:
• Overtime,
• ICT Standby Pay,
• Other Pay Adjustments,
• Special Pay Adjustments,
• Pay for Performance, and
• Pay for the Executive Director.
We are also recommending adding several pay types to this section and adjusting one that is
moving into this section.
1. COLA increases will provide non-represented employees with an increase to their pay rate
based on changes to the Consumer Price Index. This recommendation comes from the
Compensation Project. The cost of this program will vary based on how the Consumer
Price Index changes and what employees’ pay rates are. We anticipate the program will
have a 6% maximum, consistent with many of the Port’s collective bargaining agreement.
If the COLA increase is 6% for 2023 the annualized cost would be approximately
$8,200,000 and about 1200 employees will receive this increase.
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2. COLA Plus will provide non-represented employees who have lower pay rates with a pay
increase that is in addition to any COLA increase they may receive. This is also a
recommendation coming from the Compensation Project. Like the COLA increase the
amount of COLA Plus increases may vary based on the number of employees who are
eligible to receive it and their pay rates. If the COLA Plus increase is 1%, based on current
estimates the number of employees with hourly pay rates less than two times the 2023
City of Seattle minimum wage of $18.69, the annualized cost would be approximately
$103,000 and about 165 employees will be eligible for a COLA Plus increase.
3. Emergency Pay will provide employees who are not eligible for overtime additional
compensation when they are required to work during their non-scheduled time in
response to an emergency like a widespread and lengthy power outage, a major
earthquake or a significant snowstorm. The cost of the Emergency Pay program will vary
considerably based on the number of events, the duration of the events, and the number
of employees required to work beyond their normal weekly schedule to support the
emergency. Due to the significant number of variables, it is not possible to estimate a
cost for this program.
4. Multilingual pay premium will provide employees who are proficient in another language
with a pay premium for providing language services to the Port at the Port’s request. This
recommendation comes from the Compensation Project. The cost of the Multilingual
premium is dependent on many variables, most notably the need to request translation
services from Port employees. As such, we did not try to estimate a cost for this program.
In addition, we recommend that “ICT Standby Pay” be changed to “Standby Pay” so a broader
application for overtime eligible employees might be explored.
Policy Regarding Benefit Programs Offered to Employees.
In Section 5.2.B., Mandated Benefits, we recommend adding Washington Paid Sick Leave as
item (10) in the list. This required sick leave benefit for overtime eligible employees was
implemented in 2020 as required by the State of Washington. This addition is to correct the
oversight in getting this mandated benefit added to the list in the Salary and Benefits Policy
Directive.
In Section 5.2.C.(m), Additional Benefits for Employees-Paid Leave we recommend removing
the COVID-19 Vaccination Verification Incentive Day as this leave benefit was added specifically
to the 2022 Salary and Benefits Resolution with the intent that it was a benefit, an additional
paid day off, specific to 2022.
SUMMARY
The 2023 Salary and Benefits Resolution includes quite a few changes, both updates and
additions. In addition to the changes noted here we regularly review the language in the Salary
and Benefits Policy Directive to identify more succinct ways to describe programs and clearer
language to use. This year is no different and in addition to the recommended additions,
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deletions and updates we have identified several places where we will be suggesting edits to
the Salary and Benefits Policy Directive to clarify a point, remove a redundancy, or otherwise
make the information clearer and easier to read.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
This year’s Salary and Benefits Resolution has quite a few changes and most can have an impact
on the Port’s payroll and related costs. Some of these changes have costs based on numerous
variables and are not easily estimated. Others are based on fewer variables and the variables
are more certain. The recommended changes that have 2023 costs that can be reasonably
estimated based on payroll data as of October 19, 2022 include:
• The 4% Pay Range Structure Adjustment with an estimated cost of less than $40,000
with less than 30 employees receiving this adjustment.
• The COLA addition with an estimated cost around $8.2M and close to 1200 employees
receiving this adjustment.
• The COLA Plus addition with an estimated cost of about $103,000 and around 170
employees receiving this adjustment.
These costs have been incorporated into the 2023 budgeting process and included in
departments’ budgets.
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS REQUEST
(1) Draft Resolution No. 3807
(2) Attachment A_2023 Graded Salary Range Structure
(3) Exhibit A_2023 Schedule of Authorized Non-Represented Jobs
(4) 2022 (Current) Pay Ranges for Non-Represented Jobs (for information only)
(5) Pay Equity Definition and Philosophy (for information only)
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS
November 8, 2022 –The Commission was briefed and Resolution No. 3807, the 2023 Salary
and Benefits Resolution was introduced.
