City of Greeley considers new pay structure for employees, which could cost $1.5-2.5M

By Kelly Ragan

City of Greeley employees could soon see a new pay structure. 

At a city council work session Tuesday, staff discussed possible changes that council could vote on as early as May.

The new structure would essentially reduce pay inequalities and bring lower salaries up to a standard minimum – compressing the range of salaries. 

This would help the city meet legal requirements related to pay inequalities, dubbed “equal pay for equal work,” and keep salaries competitive, according to the city, as salary ranges have increased 5% on average. 

The move would also ultimately simplify the process, making it easier to review employee pay equity and create a more consistent promotional process, according to city documents. 

City staff estimates the move would cost between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. 

As it stands, the 2022 Fiscal Year budget only has about $500,000 set aside for implementation costs – so, there’s a gap. City staff plans to come back to council in May or June with more specific funding requests to address that shortfall. 

If all goes according to plan, the timeline looks like this: 

• May/June 2022: city council approves new plan 

• Late summer 2022: city implements new pay structure and approved pay adjustments 

• Fall 2022: consider the necessary funding requests to pay for adjustments as needed for the rest of fiscal year 2022. 

• 2023 and beyond: new pay structure is implemented